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AiaipeVeit  xapio'/ndTioi',  to  Si  avTO  iri'cvju.a. 

DIVERSITIES  OF  GIFTS,    BUT  THE  SAME  SPIRIT. 


DESIDERIUS    ERASMUS 


9529     11 


X 


Desiderius  Erasmus 

OF   ROTTERDAM 


BY 


EPHRAIM    EMERTON,  Ph.D. 

WINN    PROFESSOR   OF    ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTORY    IN    HARVARD 
UNIVERSITY 


O  Erasme  Roterodame,  wo  wiltu  bleiben  ?  Sieh,  was  vermag  die 
ungerecht  tyranney  der  weltlichen  gewahlt,  der  macht  der  finsternuss? 
Hor,  du  ritter  Christi,  reith  hervor  neben  den  herrn  Christum,  beschiiz 
die  wahrheit,  erlang  der  martarer  cron. 

A.  DOrer's  Diary,  1521. 


I 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

^be  ftnicherboctter  predd 
1899 


Copyright,  1899 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
Entered  at  Sutioners'  Hall,  London 


•  •  •    •  *  •     •! 


Zbc  Itnlcljerbocljer  prce?,  "Rew  Cork 


I  IS 


PREFACE 

A  COMPLETE  and  satisfactory  life  of  Erasmus 
of  Rotterdam  still  remains  to  be  written.  Its 
author  will  have  to  be  a  thorough  student  of  the 
classic  literatures,  a  theologian  familiar  with  every 
form  of  Christian  speculation,  a  historian,  to  whom 
the  complicated  movement  of  the  Reformation  is 
altogether  intelligible,  an  educator,  a  moralist,  and 
a  man  of  humour.  Only  to  such  a  person — if  such 
there  ever  were — could  the  writing  of  this  life  be  a 
wholly  congenial  task.  The  subject  has  been  ap- 
proached by  different  writers  from  all  the  points  of 
view  indicated,  but  no  biography  has  yet  shown  the 
whole  range  or  value  of  Erasmus'  varied  activities. 

The  limitations  of  the  present  volume  have  fortun- 
ately been  clearly  defined  by  the  title  of  the  series 
in  which  it  forms  a  part.  Its  function  is  to  deal  with 
Erasmus  as  a  factor  in  the  Protestant  Reformation 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  With  the  very  peculiar 
and  often  elusive  personality  of  the  man  it  has  to 
do  only  in  so  far  as  it  serves  to  suggest  an  explana- 
tion of  his  attitude  towards  the  world-movement  of 
his  time.  I  say  "  suggest  an  explanation  "  rather 
than  **  explain,"  because,  with  all  diligence,  I  can- 
not hope  to  have  made  clear  all  of  the  many  pro- 

iii 

16£256 


IV  Preface 

blems  involved  in  the  inquiry.  At  every  stage  of  the 
study  of  Erasmus  one  has  to  ask  first  what  he  be- 
lieved himself  to  be  doing,  then  what  he  wished 
others  to  believe  he  was  doing,  then  what  others 
did  think  he  was  doing,  and  finally  what  the  man 
actually  was  doing.  And  all  this  has  to  be  learned 
chiefly  from  his  own  words  and  from  his  reports  of 
the  words  of  others. 

His  life  was  full  of  strange  incongruities,  and  any 
story  of  his  life  which  should  seek  to  cover  these  in- 
congruities by  any  fictitious  theory  of  consistency 
would  but  ill  reflect  the  truth.  And  yet,  with  all 
its  pettinesses  and  weaknesses,  its  contradictions 
and  its  comings-short  of  natural  demands  upon  it, 
this  life  has,  after  all,  an  element  of  the  heroic.  If 
there  be  a  heroism  of  persistent  work  and  cheerful 
endurance,  of  steady  exclusion  of  all  distractions,  of 
refusal  to  commit  oneself  to  anything  or  anybody 
which  might  impede  one's  chosen  line  of  duty,  then 
we  may  gladly  admit  Erasmus  into  the  choice  com- 
pany of  the  Heroes  of  the  Reformation. 

Such  a  distinction  would  vastly  have  amused  him. 
He  would  have  seized  his  pen  and  dashed  off  to 
some  friend,  who  would  spread  the  word,  some  such 
disclaimer  as  this :  "  Well,  of  all  things  in  the  world, 
now  they  are  calling  me  a  hero!  If  you  never 
laughed  before,  laugh  now  to  your  heart's  content. 
I  a  hero !  a  man  afraid  of  my  shadow, — a  man  of 
books,  a  hater  of  conflict,  a  man,  who,  if  he  were 
put  to  the  test  would,  I  fear,  follow  the  example  of 
Peter  and  deny  his  Lord.  And,  not  content  with 
this,  they  add  *  of  the  Reformation.'     I,  who  never, 


Preface  v 

by  word  or  deed,  drunk  or  sober,  gave  so  much  as  a 
hint  of  belonging  to  any  of  their  accursed  '  move- 
ments ' !  Well,  no  man  can  strive  against  the 
Fates." 

I  have  chosen  the  chronological  method  because 
it  serves  best  to  illustrate  the  development  of  the 
man  in  his  relation  to  his  time.  Such  selections 
from  Erasmus*  writings  have  been  chosen  for  de- 
tailed examination  as  bear  most  directly  upon  the 
main  objects  of  the  book.  It  has  seemed  wiser  to 
make  them  long  enough  to  show  their  true  meaning 
rather  than  to  use  a  greater  number  of  mere  scraps, 
which  might  in  almost  every  case  be  contradicted  by 
other  scraps.  So  far  as  possible  the  merely  contro- 
versial has  been  avoided.  For  example,  I  have 
barely  alluded  to  the  prolonged  discussions  with 
Archbishop  Lee,  the  Frenchman  Bedda,  the  Span- 
iard Stunica,  and  the  Italian  prince  of  Carpi.  The 
detail  of  these  controversies  tends  rather  to  confuse 
than  to  illuminate  the  point  of  chief  interest  to  us. 
Yet  no  treatment  of  Erasmus  could  escape  entirely 
the  tone  of  controversy.  He  set  that  tone  himself 
and  the  student  of  his  writings  inevitably  falls  into  it. 

The  translations  have  been  kept  as  close  to  the 
originals  as  was  consistent  with  a  freedom  of  style 
somewhat  corresponding  to  Erasmus'  own.  It 
would  be  hopeless  to  attempt,  by  any  paraphrasing 
whatever,  to  improve  upon  the  freshness  and  vivac- 
ity of  the  author. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  many  friends  for  kind  assist- 
ance and  suggestion,  but  especially  to  my  colleague. 
Professor  Albert  A.  Howard  of  the  Latin  depart- 


vi  Preface 

ment  of  Harvard  University,  to  whose  careful  revis- 
ion the  accuracy  of  the  translations  is  chiefly  due. 

References  to  the  Leyden  edition  of  Erasmus' 
works  in  ,1703-1706  are  given  simply  by  volume, 
page  (column),  and  division  of  the  column,  as,  e.  g., 
iii.',  157-B. 


CONTENTS 


PREFACE 

INTRODUCTION 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

CHAPTER  I. 
SCHOOL  AND  MONASTERY.       I467-149O     . 

CHAPTER  II. 
PARIS  AND  HOLLAND.       1492-1498 

CHAPTER  III. 
FIRST    VISIT  TO  ENGLAND.       1498-1500    . 

CHAPTER  IV. 

PARIS  —  THE  "  ADAGIA  "  —  THE  "  ENCHIRIDION 
MILITIS  CHRISTIANI  " — PANEGYRIC  ON  PHILIP 
OF    BURGUNDY.       150O-1506      .... 

CHAPTER  V. 

RESIDENCE    IN    ITALY 

1506-1509         . 


-THE 


PRAISE    OF    FOLLY. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ENGLAND    (1509-15x4) THE    NEW     TESTAMENT 

THE  "  DE  COPIA   VERBORUM  ET  RERUM."  . 
vii 


PAGE 

iii 

xi 

xxi 


26 


62 


87 


122 


179 


viii  Contents 

CHAPTER   VII.  rACB 

BASEL  AND   LOUVAIN THE   "iNSTITUTlO  PRINCIPIS 

CHRISTIANI."       1515-1518         ....       218 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

BEGINNING  OF  THE  REFORMATION — CORRESPOND- 
ENCE OF  15  18-15  19  268 

CHAPTER  IX. 

DEFINITE  BREACH  WITH  THE  REFORMING  PARTIES 
— HUTTEN's  "eXPOSTULATIO"  and  ERASMUS' 
"SPONGIA."       1520-1523  ....       336 

CHAPTER  X. 

DOCTRINAL    OPPOSITION     TO     THE     REFORMATION 

FREEDOM    OF    THE    WILL THE     EUCHARIST 

THE    "spirit."       1523-1527      ....       380 

CHAPTER  XI. 

FAMILIAR  COLLOQUIES — NEW  TESTAMENT  PARA- 
PHRASES   CONTROVERSIAL     AND     DIDACTIC 

WRITINGS REMOVAL     TO     FREIBURG  LAST 

REFORMATORY    TREATISES RETURN    TO    BASEL 

DEATH.       1523-1536 ,420 

INDEX 465 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


ERASMUS Frontispiece 

From  the  portrait  by  Holbein  in  the  Louvre. 

STATUE  OF  ERASMUS  AT  ROTTERDAM         ...  2 

HOUSE    AT    ROTTERDAM    IN    WHICH    ERASMUS    WAS 

BORN 4 

From  Knight's  "  Life  of  Erasmus." 

PARISH  CHURCH  AT  ALDINGTON,  KENT     .  .  .         20 

From  Knight's  "  Life  of  Erasmus." 

HOLBEIN'S  STUDIES  FOR  THE  HANDS  OF  ERASMUS      .         48 

THOMAS  MORE 64 

From  the  portrait  by  Holbein  in  Windsor  Castle. 

JOHN  COLET      .........         70 

From  the  portrait  by  Holbein  in  Windsor  Castle. 

HENRY  VIII.  AND  HENRY  VII 78 

Fragment  of  a  cartoon  by  Holbein  in  possession  of 
the  Duke  of  Devonshire. 

FRONTISPIECE    AND    TITLE-PAGE     FROM    "  l'^LOGE 

DE  LA  FOLIE,"  PUBLISHED  AT  LEYDEN  IN  1715,       I24 

ALDUS  P.  MANUTIUS 134 

From  an  old  print. 

CARDINAL  REGINALD  POLE I46 

From  "  Erasmi  Opera,"  published  at  Leyden,  1703. 

CARDINAL  PETER  BEMBO  ......       154 

From  "  Erasmi  Opera,"  published  at  Leyden,  1703. 
ix 


X  Illustrations 

PAGE 

Holbein's  illustrations  to  the    **  praise  of 

folly" 158 

Holbein's  illustrations  to   the   "  praise   of 

folly  " 162 

Holbein's  illustrations  to   the    "  praise  of 

FOLLY  " 166 

title-page  of  the  new  testament,  1519    .         .     180 
william  warham,  archbishop  of  canterbury  .     184 

From  a  painting  by  Holbein  in  the  Louvre. 

queen's  college,  CAMBRIDGE  ....       I90 

From  Knight's  "  Life  of  Erasmus." 

JOHN  FISHER,  BISHOP  OF  ROCHESTER  .  .  .      I94 

From  the  portrait  by  Holbein  in  Windsor  Castle. 

CARDINAL  XIMENES  ......       200 

From  a  portrait  by  C.  E.  WagstafF  in  the  Florence 
Gallery. 

DEVICE  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  FROBEN    ....       204 

DEVICE  OF  FROBEN 2o6 

PORTRAIT    OF    FROBEN    BY    HOLBEIN.       EPITAPH    BY 

ERASMUS FACSIMILE  OF  HANDWRITING    .  .       232 

From  Knight's  "  Life  of  Erasmus." 

BONIFACE  AMERBACH  OF  BASEL  ....       236 

From  "  Erasmi  Opera,"  published  at  Leyden,  1703. 

CHARLES  V 262 

From  an  engraving  by  Bartel  Behain,  1531. 

PHILIP  MELANCHTHON 280 

From  the  portrait  by  Holbein  in  Windsor  Castle. 

FRONTISPIECE     (ERASMUS     SEATEd)     TO     "  ERASMI 

OPERA,"    PUBLISHED    AT    LEYDEN,    1703    .  .       296 


Illustrations  xi 

PAGE 

ERASMUS   WITH    "  TERMINUS "  ....      314 

From  a  woodcut  by  Holbein  in  the  Basel  Museum. 

ERASMUS 334 

From  a  copper  engraving  by  Albrecht  DUrer. 

FACSIMILE   OF    LETTER    OF    ERASMUS   TO   JOHANNES 

LANGE 342 

ULRICH  VON  HUTTEN 362 

From  a  contemporary  woodcut. 

BILIBALD  PIRKHEIMER  OF  NUREMBERG      .  .  .      414 

From  an  engraving  by  Albrecht  DUrer,  in  "  Erasmi 
Opera,"  published  at  Leyden,  1703. 

TITLE-PAGE    TO    THE    "COLLOQUIES   OF    ERASMUS," 

PUBLISHED  AT  AMSTERDAM,  1693       .  .  .      424 

Portrait  of  Erasmus  and  others. 

TITLE-PAGE  TO  THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  EDITION  OF  THE 
"  APOPHTHEGMS  OF  ERASMUS,"  TRANSLATED  BY 
UDALL,   1542 450 

INSCRIPTION  ON  THE  TOMB  OF  ERASMUS,  AT    BASEL,      460 
From  Knight's  "  Life  of  Erasmus." 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  student  of  Erasmus  is  at  first  overwhelmed 
by  the  abundance  of  the  material  before  him. 
A  man  who  has  left  to  posterity  enough  to  fill  eleven 
folio  volumes  would  seem  to  have  made  a  biographer 
unnecessary.  Especially  when  two  of  these  volumes 
are  filled  with  personal  letters,  more  than  eighteen 
hundred  in  number,  and  addressed  to  some  five 
hundred  correspondents,  it  might  well  seem  that  the 
best  biography  would  be  a  faithful  transcript  of 
what  the  man  himself  has  given  us.  And,  in  fact, 
almost  all  that  we  know  about  Erasmus  comes 
through  himself.  The  singular  thing  is  that  with 
this  great  mass  of  material  we  know  so  little  that  is 
definite  about  him. 

He  lived  in  one  of  the  most  eventful  periods  of 
the  world's  history,  and  was  in  some  kind  of  per- 
sonal relation  with  its  leading  actors;  and  yet  his 
life,  from  beginning  to  end,  has  not  one  event  more 
important  or  stirring  than  a  journey  in  winter,  an 
attack  of  illness,  a  quarrel  with  some  fellow  scholar, 
or  a  change  of  residence.  Our  whole  knowledge  of 
his  early  life  up  to  the  period  of  production  is  de- 
rived from  a  very  brief  record  made  by  himself 
many  years  afterward  and  made  obviously  with  both 
a  literary  and  a  practical  purpose. 


xiv  Introduction 

His  letters  were  largely  collected  and  published 
by  himself  long  after  they  were  written,  and  were, 
so  he  himself  tells  us,  freely  altered  for  publication. 
Their  chronology  is  hopelessly  confused.  Erasmus 
says  that  he  supplied  many  of  them  with  the  day 
and  year  when  he  came  to  edit  them.  He  was  him- 
self at  all  times  curiously  indifferent  to  the  merely 
historical.  It  was  always  subordinate  in  his  mind  to 
the  broadly  human  and  philosophical.  The  letters 
must  therefore  be  read  with  constant  reference  to 
their  immediate  purpose,  and  few  of  them  are  with- 
out purpose,  though  it  would  require  a  bold  man 
indeed  to  be  always  sure  just  what  it  is.  Luther's 
judgment  upon  them  was  unjustly  severe:  "  In  the 
epistles  of  Erasmus  you  find  nothing  of  any  account, 
except  praise  for  his  friends,  scolding  and  abuse  for 
his  enemies,  and  that  's  all  there  is  to  it."  The 
principles  which  governed  Erasmus  as  editor  of  his 
own  correspondence  are  indicated  in  a  letter^  of  1520 
to  Beatus  Rhenanus. 

He  represents  himself  as  driven  to  edit  them  in 
order  to  check  the  publication  of  unauthorised  edi- 
tions, of  which  several  had  certainly  appeared  before 
1 5 19.  He  determined  to  make  at  least  a  selection 
and  judiciously  to  modify  the  contents.  "  With 
this  purpose  I  revised  the  collection.  Some  things 
I  explained,  which  certain  persons  had  interpreted 
unfavourably.  Some,  which  I  found  had  offended 
the  oversensitive  and  irritable  tempers  of  certain 
persons,  I  struck  out.  Some  things  I  softened." 
But,  after  all,  he  says,  as  time  went  on,  he  repented 

'iii.',  552. 


Introduction  xv 

him  of  his  plan  and  urged  Froben,  to  whom  he  had 
sent  the  "  copy,"  to  suppress  it  entirely  or  put  it  off 
to  a  more  fitting  time.  But  the  work  was  so  far 
along  that  Froben  declared  he  would  not  throw 
away  all  that  expense,  and  Erasmus  just  had  to 
humour  him.  "  I  had  to  give  way  to  him  and  incur 
myself  perhaps  the  risk  of  my  reputation  in  order  to 
save  him  the  risk  of  his  money."  ' 

Erasmus  shared  with  most  scholars  of  the  Renais- 
sance the  cacoethes  scribendi.  He  says  of  himself  that 
his  words  were  rather  poured  out  thau  written. 
When  he  took  his  pen  in  hand  it  became  an  inde- 
pendent force,  against  which  he  had  to  contend  lest 
it  run  away  with  him  altogether,  and  it  is  one  of  his 
claims  to  greatness  as  a  writer  that  on  the  whole  he 
kept  the  mastery  over  it.  This  essentially  literary 
quality  must  be  constantly  borne  in  mind  by  the 
historian  and  he  must  always  be  striving  to  fix  the 
line  where  history  ends  and  literature  begins. 

Again, — and  here  also  Erasmus  was  eminently  a 
Renaissance  man, — he  felt  himself  to  be  the  centre 
of  the  world.  In  a  sense  that  is,  of  course,  true  of 
every  thinking  man ;  but  in  Erasmus  this  newly 
awakened  individual  consciousness  took  on  a  form 
of  acute  personal  sensitiveness  which  affected  his 
relation  to  all  persons  and  all  things  about  him. 
Especially  it  reacted  upon  his  writing.  He  could 
not  be  objective  upon  any  question  into  which  his 
personality  entered  ever  so  slightly.  Whatever 
touched  him  as  a  man,  as  a  scholar,  a  theologian,  a 
churchman,  or  a  citizen,  began  at  once  to  lose  its 

'  See  also  the  long  treatise,  de  comcribendis  epistoUs,  i.,  341-483. 


^ 


xvi  Introduction 

true  perspective.  He  saw  it  only  in  its  relation  to 
himself,  or  at  best  to  the  cause  of  pure  learning, 
which  he  always  felt  to  be  embodied  in  himself. 

No  writer  upon  Erasmus  has  failed  to  notice  these 
qualities.  The  singular  thing  has  been  that,  recog- 
nising them,  the  biographers  have  not  tried  in  any 
consistent  fashion  to  measure  them  as  affecting  the 
value  of  our  sources  of  knowledge.  It  has  generally 
sufficed  to  refer  to  them  and  then  to  treat  the  sources 
as  pure  historical  information.  Plainly  the  solution 
is  not  an  easy  one.  If  we  should  reject,  for  example, 
the  letter  to  Grunnius '  or  the  Colloquy  on  The  Eat- 
ing of  Fish  *  as  sources  for  Erasmus'  early  life,  we 
should  have  very  little  left.  If  we  should  accept 
them  as  history  we  should  be  mingling  fact  and 
fancy  in  altogether  uncertain  proportions.  The 
only  safe  method  is,  therefore,  to  try  in  each  case 
to  weigh  the  value  of  the  text  before  us  with  fullest 
reference  to  all  the  circumstances. 

This  rule  applies  as  well  to  the  treatises  as  to  the 
letters,  whenever  the  personal  element  enters  into 
the  account.  Where  no  such  issue  can  be  raised, 
as,  for  example,  in  the  purely  philological  essays  or 
in  the  treatises  against  war,  or  in  abstract  moral  or 
didactic  writing,  we  are  often  forced  to  admire  the 
vigour  and  decision  of  Erasmus*  utterance.  But  if 
his  personal  judgment  was  assailed,  as  it  frequently 
was,  then  even  on  a  merely  grammatical  question 
his  sensitive  temper  was  readily  roused  to  a  kind  of 
defence  which  we  find  very  difficult  to  accept  as  a 
calm  statement  of  fact. 

'iii.*,  1821.  'i.,  787-810. 


Introduction  xvii 

Another  source  of  confusion  is  Erasmus'  amazing 
command  of  classic  literature  and  his  cleverness  in 
utilising,  not  merely  the  forms,  but  at  times  the 
ideas  and  even  the  phrases  of  ancient  authors.  How 
much  of  what  he  says,  for  example,  in  his  descrip- 
tions of  persons,  whether  favourably  or  unfavourably, 
is  really  his  own  and  how  much  borrowed  is  often 
quite  impossible  to  discover.  This  borrowing  or 
adapting  is  so  much  a  habit  that  he  obviously  bor- 
rows from  himself,  using  under  similar  circum- 
stances what  seem  to  have  become  almost  formulas 
of  his  thought.  He  must  be  literary;  he  might  be 
accurate. 

Of  contemporary  biographical  attempts  we  have 
almost  nothing.  Erasmus'  younger  friend,  Beatus 
Rhenanus  of  Schlettstadt  in  Alsatia,  one  of  the 
Basel  circle  of  scholars,  has  left  us  two  fragments, 
one  a  dedication  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  of  the 
1540  edition  of  Erasmus'  works,  and  the  other  from 
the  dedication  to  an  edition  of  Origen  in  1536  with 
Erasmus'  revision.  These  two  brief  sketches  fill 
but  six  printed  folio  pages.  They  are  disfigured  by 
elaborate  panegyric,  not  only  of  Erasmus,  but  of 
the  emperor  as  well,  are  obviously  drawn  from  Eras- 
mus' own  account  of  himself,  and  contribute  little 
original  material  to  our  knowledge. 

In  regard  to  his  writings,  Erasmus  on  two  occa- 
sions made  attempts  to  summarise  his  work,  once  in 
1524  at  the  request  of  John  Botzheim,  a  canon  of 
the  church  at  Constance,  and  again,  during  his  resid- 
ence at  Freiburg,  in  reply  to  an  inquiry  from 
Hector   Boethius  of   the  University  of  Aberdeen. 


xviii  Introduction 

The  latter  is  a  mere  table  of  contents  for  a  possible 
complete  edition  of  his  works,  but  the  former  in- 
cludes a  great  deal  of  description  of  the  circum- 
stances under  which  many  of  the  works  were  written. 
These  descriptions  are  at  times  so  trivial  that  they 
can  hardly  command  our  respect,  and  yet  it  would 
of  course  be  impossible  to  deny  that  a  work  of  great 
importance  may  have  had  a  trivial  suggestion.  This 
longer  catalogue  gives  us  also  a  good  many  side- 
lights upon  Erasmus'  personality  and  movements. 
The  general  arrangement  and  division  into  volumes 
suggested  by  Erasmus  himself  were  followed  in  the 
first  Basel  edition  of  1540,  and  have  been  preserved 
in  the  Leyden  edition  of  Leclerc  in  1703- 1706  which 
we  have  used. 

That  the  following  pages  will  give  a  clear  and  con- 
sistent impression  of  Erasmus'  motive  at  each  stage 
of  his  career  is  more  than  we  can  hope  for.  The 
best  we  can  offer  is  an  honest  appreciation  of  his 
great  service  to  the  cause  of  reform,  often  in  ways 
he  little  expected  or  desired,  often  very  indirectly, 
and  always  without  relation  to  any  definite  scheme 
of  action.  We  may,  however,  fairly  hope  that  as 
each  occasion  arises,  we  have  so  plainly  set  the  pos- 
sibilities before  the  reader  that  he  may  form  an 
intelligent  judgment  as  to  the  probability. 

The  most  serious  problem  at  every  step  is  what 
weight  to  give  to  Erasmus'  statements  about  him- 
self. The  only  reasonable  test  is  to  be  found  in 
what  he  actually  did.  If,  for  example,  he  professes 
undying  love  for  the  city  of  Rome  and  an  uncon- 
trollable   desire   to   end    his   days   there  ;   at   the 


Introduction  xix 

same  time  protests  that  everyone  at  Rome  is  long- 
ing to  have  him  there,  and  yet  takes  no  steps  to  go, 
we  are  forced  to  inquire  what  were  the  reasons  which 
kept  him  away,  and  may  have  to  conclude  that  all 
this  was  a  bit  of  comedy  arranged  for  some  effect 
which  we,  as  plain  historians,  should  be  glad  to 
understand. 

In  applying  these  tests  to  Erasmus'  declarations 
about  the  Reformation  we  find  the  largest  scope  for 
the  critical  method.  All  that  is  mysterious  in  his 
personality  up  to  that  time  becomes  doubly  so  when 
he  finds  himself — he  would  have  us  believe  quite 
against  his  will — thrust  forward  into  prominence  as 
a  rebel  against  the  existing  order.  Several  courses 
of  action  were  open  to  him :  First,  and  most  obvious, 
to  keep  silent;  second,  to  join  with  the  party  of  re- 
form, try  to  hold  it  to  the  essential  things,  and  supply 
it  with  the  weapons  of  learning  which  none  could 
prepare  so  well  as  he;  third,  to  denounce  the  re- 
form, seek  his  safety  in  close  alliance  with  Rome,  and 
then  try  to  moderate,  as  far  as  he  could,  the  ex- 
tremes of  Roman  abuse.  No  one  of  these  methods 
commended  itself  wholly  to  his  judgment  or  to 
his  nature.  He  could  not  be  silent ;  he  would  not 
lend  himself  to  what  he  called  "  sedition  "  ;  and  he 
neither  could,  nor  did  he  quite  dare,  trust  himself 
in  the  hands  of  the  Church  he  professed  to  serve, 
lest  he  find  his  liberty  of  action  restricted  beyond 
endurance. 

The  world  into  which  Erasmus  was  born  was  a 
world  of  violent  contrasts.  The  papal  system,  hav- 
ing come  victorious  out  of  the  struggle  with  the 


XX  Introduction 

conciliar  movement  of  the  fifteenth  century,  seemed 
to  control  without  resistance  every  current  of  ec- 
clesiastical life  and  thought.  Yet  the  deep  and 
steady  flow  of  sincere  and  simple  faith  best  repre- 
sented by  the  mystical  writers,  individual  and  asso- 
ciated, was  gaining  in  force  and  was  making  Europe 
ready  for  a  revolt  they  never  even  thought  of.  The 
spirit  of  modern  science,  which  is  nothing  more  than 
a  desire  to  see  things  in  their  true  relations,  was 
making  itself  felt  in  invention  and  discovery  and  in 
the  revelation  of  Man  to  himself  as  a  being  worth 
investigating.  Yet  over  against  this  spirit  of  light 
and  liberty  hovers  the  dark  shadow  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion and  its  kindred  manifestations  of  an  exclusive 
claim  to  the  knowledge  and  control  of  the  Truth. 
Vast  political  powers  were  contending  for  the  pos- 
session of  long-disputed  territories,  while  within 
their  borders  great  social  and  industrial  discon- 
tents were  gathering  to  a  demonstration  whenever 
the  strain  of  these  dynastic  struggles  should  become 
unbearable. 

There  were  men  in  this  vast  conflict  of  ideas  to 
whom  it  was  given  to  lead  others  along  some  visible 
and  definable  road  to  some  determinable  end: 
Thomas  ci  Kempis  along  the  way  of  faith  to  the 
haven  of  religious  peace;  Luther  and  Calvin  along 
the  way  of  doctrinal  clearness  through  ecclesiastical 
revolution  to  deliberate  reconstruction ;  Descartes 
through  a  single,  all-inclusive  philosophical  proposi- 
tion to  ultimate  certainty  of  thought;  the  great 
artists  through  "  painting  the  thing  as  they  saw  it  " 
to  a  new  basis  of  aesthetic  judgment.     The  special 


Introduction  xxi 

function  of  Erasmus  in  the  Great  Readjustment  was, 
as  he  conceived  it,  to  bring  men  back  to  the  stand- 
ards of  a  true  Christianity  by  constant  reference  to 
the  principles  of  ancient  learning,  and  by  an  appeal 
to  the  tribunal  of  common  sense.  His  activity  took 
many  forms;  but  he  was  always,  whether  through 
classical  treatise  or  encyclopaedic  collection  or  satiri- 
cal dialogue  or  direct  moral  appeal — always  and 
everywhere,  the  preacher  of  righteousness.  His  suc- 
cesses were  invariably  along  this  line.  His  failures 
were  caused  by  his  incapacity  to  perceive  at  what 
moment  the  mere  appeal  to  the  moral  sense  was  no 
longer  adequate.  His  services  to  the  Reformation 
were  warmly  recognised  even  by  so  violent  an  op- 
ponent as  Hutten ;  his  personal  limitations  were  in 
danger  of  making  those  services  of  no  avail,  and 
there  was  the  point  where  he  and  those  with  whom 
he  ought  to  have  worked  parted  company. 

Our  work  divides  itself  naturally  into  two  parts: 
First,  the  development  of  Erasmus  up  to  the  out- 
break of  the  Lutheran  Reformation  in  15 17,  and  sec- 
ond, his  relation  to  the  leading  persons  and  ideas 
of  the  next  twenty  years.  In  treating  the  former 
period  we  shall  examine  the  traditional  story  of 
Erasmus'  early  education,  and  shall  illustrate  by 
selections  showing  as  fairly  as  may  be  what  proved 
to  be  the  dominant  traits  of  his  mind  and  character. 
In  the  second  part  we  shall  endeavour  to  show  how 
the  traits  thus  formed  determined  his  attitude  to- 
wards the  unexpected  demands  of  a  new  time. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

IT  would  be  idle  to  attempt  here  an  Erasmian 
bibliography,  since  the  elaborate  undertaking 
of  the  University  Library  at  Ghent  in  1893  '  has 
placed  the  material  available  up  to  that  date  in  a 
form  accessible  to  every  reader.  The  same  editors 
are  now  engaged  upon  a  still  more  stupendous  enter- 
prise, a  bibliography,"  in  16°  form,  giving  complete 
titles  of  all  known  editions  of  every  work.  Begun 
in  1897,  it  thus  far  includes  only  the  editions  of  the 
Adagia.  I  give  here,  therefore,  only  the  sources 
likely  to  interest  the  general  reader  and  especially 
such  as  I  have  consulted  in  the  preparation  of  this 
volume. 

I  have  used  constantly  the  Leyden  edition  of 
Erasmus'  works'  based  upon  the  Basel  edition  of 
1 540.  The  arrangement  is  roughly  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  material.  The  editorial  work  is  meagre 
and  careless.  The  indexes  are  elaborately  and  ex- 
asperatingly  useless.     In   the   case  of  the  letters, 

'  Bibliotheca  Erasmiana  ;  Repertoire  des  ceuvres  d'^rasme.  Ghent, 

1893. 

'  Bibliotheca  Erasmiana ;  Bibliographie  des  ceuvres  d'  £rasme, 
Ghent,  1897. 

*  Desiderii  Erasmi  Roterodami  opera  omnia,  emendatiora  et 
auctiora,  etc.,  ed.  Johannes  Clericus  (Jean  LeClerc),  10  vols.,  folio. 
Leyden,  1 703-1 706. 


xxiv  Bibliographical  Note 

though  the  editor  is  perfectly  conscious  of  false 
arrangement  and  dating,  he  leaves  them  as  he  finds 
them,  and  the  reader  is  compelled  to  discover  the 
inaccuracies  for  himself.  Professor  Adalbert  Hora- 
witz  of  Vienna  was  preparing  to  write  a  Life  of  Eras- 
mus when  he  was  interrupted  by  death  in  1888.  His 
preliminary  studies  '  have  supplied  much  new  ma- 
terial and  given  us  many  valuable  critical  sugges- 
tions. In  1876  Professor  W.  Vischer  of  Basel,  acting 
on  the  suggestion  of  Horawitz,  published  a  series  of 
very  interesting  documents  which  he  had  discovered 
in  the  Basel  University  Library,  and  which  throw 
much  light  upon  several  obscure  points  in  the  life  of 
Erasmus."  An  article  by  the  late  Dr.  R.  Fruin,* 
which  came  to  my  knowledge  after  the  completion 
of  the  manuscript,  quite  confirms  my  view  of  the 
utter  untrustworthiness  of  Erasmus'  accounts  of  his 
early  life.  Jortin's  Life  of  Erasmus,  first  published 
in  1758-60,  2d  ed.,  in  3  vols.,  1808,  is  little  more 
than  a  translation  of  LeClerc's  Vie  d" ^rasme* 
which  was  published  as  a  kind  of  r^sum^  and  adver- 
tisement at  once  of  the  Leyden  Opera.  Jortin  gives, 
however,  in  addition,  a  good  many  documents  and 
a  mass  of  more  or  less  relevant  remarks. 


'  Horawitz,  Adalbert,  Erasmiana ;  in  SitzungsberichU  der  K. 
Akademie  der  Wissemchaften.  Vienna,  1878-1885.  Text  and 
documents.  Ueber  die  Colloquia  des  Erasmus ;  in  Raumer's  His- 
torisches  Taschenbuch.     1887. 

*  Vischer,  Wilhelm,  Erasmiana.     Basel,  1876. 

*  Fruin,  R.,  Erasmiana;  in  Bijdragen  voor  vaderlandsche  ge- 
schiedenis  en  ouheidkunde,  new  series,  x..  1880  ;  3d  series,  i.,  1882. 

*  Jean  LeClerc,  Vie  d'  £rasme  tir/e  de  ses  lettres,  etc.,  in  Bibli- 
othique  choisie.     Amsterdam,  1703  sqq,,  vols,  i.,  v.,  vi.,  viii. 


Bibliographical  Note  xxv 

Of  more  recent  biographies,  that  of  R.  B.  Drum-       ' 
mond '  is,  all  things  considered,  the  best ;  careful 
and  serious,  but  showing  the  almost  universal  tend- 
ency to  take  Erasmus  at  his  word,  even  while  ad- 
mitting his  incapacity  to  tell  the  truth. 

Durand  de  Laur"  gives  in  his  first  volume  a  sketch 
of  Erasmus'  life  with  little  critical  sifting  of  evidence, 
and  in  the  second  an  interesting  examination  of  his 
achievements  in  the  several  lines  of  his  activity. 

Froude's  Life  and  Letters '  illustrates  the  author's 
familiar  qualities, — his  remarkable  distinctness  of 
view  and  his  complete  indifference  to  accuracy  of 
detail. 

Samuel  Knight's  Life,*  1726,  is  still  readable.  It 
deals  chiefly  with  the  relations  of  Erasmus  to  Eng- 
land, and  gives  a  great  deal  of  "  curious  informa- 
tion "  about  persons  incidentally  connected  with 
him. 

Other  works  likely  to  be  of  interest  to  the  reader 
and  student  are : 


Altmeyer,  J.  J.,   Les  pr/curseurs  de  la  R/forme  attx  Pays-bas. 
Brussels,   1886.      Arasme  et  les  hommes  de  son  temps,  vol.  i.,  pp. 

258-343. 

Amiel,  Emile,  Un  Libre-penseur  du  XVI  silcle  :  Arasme.    Paris, 
1889. 


*  Drummond,   Robert  B.,  Erasmus,  his  Life  and  Character  as 
shown  in  his  Correspondence  and  Works.     2  vols.     London,  1873. 

*  Durand   de   Laur,    H.      ^rasme,  prdcurseur   et   initiateur  de 
I'esprit  moderne.     2  vols,     Paris,  1872. 

'  Froude,  James  Anthony,  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus  ;  lectures 
delivered  at  Oxford,  1893-94.     London  and  New  York,  1894. 

*  Knight,  Samuel,  The  Life  of  Erasmus.    Cambridge,  1726.  With 
many  valuable  documents. 


xxvi  Bibliographical  Note 

Burigny,  J.  L.  de,  Vie  d'  ^rasme.     2  vols.     Paris,  1757. 

Butler,  Charles,  Life  of  Erasmus.     London,  1825. 

Feugire,  Gaston,  £rasme, — £tude  sur  sa  vie  et  ses  ouvrages. 
Paris,  1874. 

Hartfelder,  Karl,  D.  Erasmus  von  Rotterdam  und  die  Papste  seiner 
Zeit ;  in  Raumer's  Historisches  Taschenbuch,  i8gi. 

Hartfelder,  Karl,  Friedrich  der  Weise  und  D.  Erasmus  von  Rot- 
terdam; in  Zeitschrift  fur  vergleickende  Literaturgesckichte,  etc., 
new  series,  iv.,  1891. 

Janssen,  Joh.,  Geschichte  des  Deutschen  Volkes  seit  dem  Ausgang 
des  Mittelalters.  Freiburg,  1879,  and  in  repeated  editions.  On 
Erasmus  in  vol.  ii. 

Kammel,  H.,  Erasmus  in  Deventer  ;  in  yahrbticher  fUr  classische 
Philologie,  vol.  ex. 

MUller,  Adolph,  Leben  des  Erasmus.     Hamburg,  1828. 

Nolhac,  Pierre  de,  Arasme  en  Italie  ;  /tude  sur  un  ipisode  de  la 
Renaissance  avec  douze  lettres  in/dites  d'  Arasme.     Paris,  1888. 

Pennington,  A.  R.,  The  Life  of  Erasmus.     London,  1875. 

Richter,  Arthur,  Erasmus-studien.     Dresden,  189I. 

Seebohm,  Frederic,  The  Oxford  Reformers  of  I4g8:  Colet, 
Erasmus,  More.     London,  1867;  3d  ed.,  1887. 

Staehelin,  R.,  Erasmus'  Stellung  zur  Reformation.     Basel,  1873. 

Stichart,  F.  O.,  Erasmus  von  Rotterdam,  Seine  Stellung  zu  der 
Kirche  und  zu  den  kirchlichen  Bewegungen  seiner  Zeit.   Leipzig,  1870. 

Woltmann,  A..  Holbein  und  seine  Zeit.  Leipzig,  1866-68,  2  parts  ; 
2d  ed.,  1874-76,  2  vols.  English  translation,  Holbein  and  his  Time. 
London,  1872. 


DESIDERIUS   ERASMUS 


DESIDERIUS  ERASMUS 


CHAPTER  I    • 

SCHOOL  AND    MONASTERY 
I 467- I 490 


IN  a  letter'  written  by  Erasmus,  in  1520,  to  Peter 
Manius  occurs  a  passage  so  characteristic  of  the 
writer  that  one  can  hardly  have  a  better  introduction 
to  the  study  of  his  life.  Manius  had  urged  him  to 
declare  frankly  that  he  was  not  a  Frenchman  bat  a 
German,  in  order  that  Germany  might  not  be  de- 
frauded of  so  great  a  glory.     Erasmus  replies : 

"  In  the  first  place  it  seems  to  me  to  make  little  differ- 
ence where  a  man  is  born,  and  I  think  it*a  vain  sort  of 
glorification  when  a  city  or  a  nation  boasts  of  producing  a 
man  who  has  become  great  through  his  own  exertions 
and  not  by  the  help  of  his  native  land.  Far  more  pro- 
perly may  that  country  boast  which  has  made  him  great 
than  that  which  brought  him  forth.  So  far  I  speak  as  if 
there  were  anything  in  me  in  which  my  country  might 
take  pride.  It  is  enough  for  me  if  she  be  not  ashamed 
of  me,  — though  indeed  Aristotle  does  not  wholly  disap- 

'iii.',  582.C. 


2  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

prove  that  kind  of  pride  which  may  add  a  spur  to  the 
pursuit  of  a  worthy  aim. 

"  If  there  were  any  of  this  kind  of  pride  in  me  I  should 
wish  that  not  France  and  Germany  alone  should  claim 
me,  but  that  each  and  every  nation  and  city  might  go  into 
the  strife  for  Erasmus.  It  would  be  a  useful  error  which 
should  incite  so  many  to  worthy  effort.  Whether  I  am 
a  Batavian  or  no  is  not  even  yet  quite  clear  to  me.  I 
cannot  deny  that  I  am  a  Hollander,  born  in  that  region 
which,  if  we  may  trust  the  map-makers,  lies  rather  to- 
wards France  than  towards  Germany;  although  it  is 
beyond  a  doubt  that  that  whole  region  is  on  the  border- 
land between  the  two." 

Erasmus  cared  not  where  he  was  born  and  cer- 
tainly was  in  no  way  identified  with  Rotterdam,  his 
native  place.  He  often  speaks  of  "  us  "  and  "  our 
people,"  referring  to  Low  Germans  generally,  but 
he  preferred  to  be  called  a  citizen  of  the  world,  and 
his  whole  life  is  the  illustration  of  this  indifference. 
Though  born  a  Dutchman,  it  has  been  doubted 
whether  he  could  speak  with  readiness  his  native 
tongue,  and  it  seems  certain  that  no  other  modern 
language  caTne  as  readily  to  his  lips  as  did  the 
speech  of  ancient  Rome.'  During  a  long  life  he 
was  continually  in  motion,  never  resting  more  than 
a  few  years  in  any  one  place,  always  seeking  more 
favourable  conditions  for  the  work  he  had  in  hand. 

'  I  quite  agree  with  Dr.  A.  Richter,  Erasmus-Studien,  1891,  that 
Erasmus  cannot  be  accused  of  any  contempt  for  the  vulgar  tongues 
or  any  lack  of  sympathy  with  common  human  life,  but  I  do  not  find 
his  arguments  for  a  thorough  command  of  any  modern  language  alto- 
gether convincing.  That  he  could  speak  French  enough  for  travel- 
ling purposes  and  write  it,  as  he  says  himself,  "badly,"  is  probable. 


STATUE  OF  ERASMUS  AT  ROTTERDAM. 


I490]  School  and  Monastery  3 

Holland,  Belgium,  England,  France,  Switzerland, 
were  equally  his  homes,  "  ubi  bene,  ibi  patria/'  If 
he  had  a  preference  of  sentiment  for  any  country  it 
was  possibly  for  England,  but  the  demands  of  his 
work  and  the  pressure  of  untoward  circumstances 
carried  him  hither  and  yon,  so  that  his  visits  to 
England  seem  rather  like  busy  vacations  in  his 
arduous  life.  Patriotism,  citizenship,  loyalty  to  a 
place,  seemed  to  him  like  so  many  limitations  upon 
that  dominant  individuality  which  was  the  key-note 
of  his  character. 

As  he  was  indifferent  to  the  place,  so  was  he  also 
to  the  time  of  his  birth.  It  is  even  probable  that  he 
did  not  know  precisely  when  he  was  born.  At  all 
events  he  nowhere  tells  us,  excepting  that  the  day 
was  the  27-28th  of  October.  As  to  the  year  we  are 
left  to  later  conjecture,  and  1467,  the  date  placed 
by  the  citizens  of  Rotterdam  upon  their  monument 
to  his  memory,  is  as  likely  to  be  correct  as  any 
other.' 

In  regard  to  his  family  and  the  circumstances  of 
his  birth,  Erasmus  was  also  reticent  to  the  point  of 
obscurity.  That  he  was  born  out  of  wedlock  is 
clear.  His  enemies  made  what  little  they  could  out 
of  the  fact,  and  he  never  took  the  trouble  to  deny 
it.  We  may  safely  conclude  that  he  cared  as  little 
to  what  family  he  belonged  as  to  what  land  he  owed 
his  affection.     Our  actual  knowledge  on  the  subject 


'  The  careful  inquiry  of  Dr.  Richter  into  the  birth-year  of  Erasmus 
attempts  to  fix  the  year  1466  as  the  correct  date,  but  rather  succeeds 
in  showing  the  hopeless  confusion  of  our  material,  and  the  evident 
ignorance  and  indifference  of  Erasmus  himself  on  the  subject. 


4  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

is  limited  to  the  pathetic  little  opening  paragraph  of 
the  very  brief  Compendium  VitcB,  which  he  sent, 
under  the  impression  of  approaching  death,  to  his 
intimate  friend,  Conrad  Goclenius,  Latin  professor 
at  the  University  of  Lou  vain.  "  Nothing,"  he  says 
in  the  letter  accompanying  it,  "  was  ever  more  un- 
fortunate than  my  birth,  but  perchance  there  will  be 
those  who  will  add  fictions  to  the  facts."  "  My 
father  Gerard,"  he  writes,  "  had  secretly  an  affair 
with  Margaret,  daughter  of  a  physician  of  Zeven- 
berge,  in  the  hope  of  marriage,  and  some  say  that 
they  had  plighted  their  troth  {intercessisse  verba). 

The  marriage  was  delayed  by  the  desire  of  Gerard's 
parents  that  one  of  their  family  of  ten  sons  should 
be  devoted  to  the  Church  and  by  the  jealousy  of  the 
brothers  lest  their  property  be  diminished.  Mean- 
while Gerard,  "  as  desperate  men  are  wont  to  do," 
took  himself  out  of  the  way  and  wandered  to  Rome. 
Our  Erasmus  was  born  after  his  departure.  The 
relatives,  learning  Gerard's  whereabouts,  sent  him 
word  that  Margaret  was  dead,  and  the  poor  fellow, 
who  had  been  earning  his  living  as  a  copyist  and 
decorator  of  manuscripts,  sought  refuge  in  ordina- 
tion as  a  priest.  On  his  return  to  Holland  he  dis- 
covered the  fraud,  but  lived  the  short  remnant  of 
his  days  faithful  to  his  priestly  vows. 

One  or  two  obscure  references  in  later  writings 
give  some  reason  to  think  that  Erasmus  had  an  older 
brother,  who  figures  also  in  the  letter  to  Grunnius 
mentioned  in  the  Introduction.  This  brother  can 
interest  us  only  as  affecting  the  question  of  the  re- 
lation between  the  father  and  mother  of  Erasmus. 


HOUSE  AT  ROTTERDAM   IN  WHICH  ERASMUS  WAS  BORN. 


i49o]  School  and  Monastery  5 

His  appearance  in  the  letter  to  Grunnius  reminds 
one  so  strongly  of  the  characters  introduced  by 
Erasmus  in  his  Colloquies  to  serve  as  foils  for  the 
principal  speakers,  that  one  can  hardly  help  suspect- 
ing a  similar  device  here.  At  all  events  the  brother 
is  too  shadowy  a  personage  to  warrant  us  in  drawing 
from  his  previous  existence  any  instructive  conclu- 
sion as  to  the  origin  of  Erasmus. 

In  spite  of  so  unfavourable  a  start  in  life,  the  early 
years  of  the  lad  seem  to  have  been  as  well  sheltered 
and  cared  for  as  could  be  desired.  The  little  Gerard, 
as  tradition  would  have  him  called  during  his  child- 
hood, was  early  sent  to  school  in  Gouda  (Tergouw), 
his  father's  native  place,  to  an  uncle,  Peter  Winckel 
by  name,  and  served  for  some  time  before  he  was 
nine  years  old  as  choir-boy  at  the  Cathedral  of 
Utrecht." 

He  says  of  himself  at  this  tender  age,  that  he 
"  made  but  little  progress  in  those  unattractive 
studies  for  which  he  was  not  made  by  Nature," 
but  we  are  hardly  warranted  in  drawing  from  this 
phrase  the  conclusion  that  he  was  ever  a  backward 
scholar. 

At  nine  he  was  sent  to  the  famous  school  at  Dev- 
enter.  His  mother  accompanied  him  and  cared 
for  him  as  before.     Of  the  Deventer  school  Erasmus 


'  A  papal  brief  of  the  year  1517,  found  recently  at  Basel,  is  en- 
dorsed :  Dilecto  filio  Erasmo  Roi^erii  Roierodamensi  clerico.  The 
editor,  W.  Vischer,  believes,  on  this  evidence,  that  the  family  name 
of  our  scholar  was  Roger  and  his  baptismal  name  Erasmus.  He 
thinks  it  probable  that  Erasmus  had  been  more  frank  in  his  state- 
ments to  the  Pope  than  he  usually  cared  to  be  and  had  given  his  true 
name  in  the  petition  to  which  this  brief  is  the  answer. 


6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

says  that  it  was  "  as  yet  a  barbarous  place,"  by  which 
he  means  that  it  had  not  yet  been  reformed  in  the 
direction  of  the  New  Learning.  The  boys  had  to 
learn  their  "/>aUr  metis"  '  (?)  to  conjugate  their  verbs, 
and  to  master  their  Latin  grammar  in  the  text-books 
of  Everard  and  John  Garland.  It  was  a  dreary 
method  and  Erasmus'  recollection  doubtless  made 
it  seem  worse  than  it  really  was.  The  error  of  it  to 
his  maturer  mind  was  that  it  was  rather  practical 
than  scientific,  especially  that  it  did  not  introduce 
the  pupil  from  the  outset  to  the  models  of  Latin 
style,  which  the  great  classic  authors  alone  could 
furnish.  He  looked  back  upon  these,  as  indeed 
upon  all  his  years  of  pupilage,  as  to  a  time  of 
struggle  and  hardship.  Yet  the  fact  is  that  he  was 
making  rapid  progress,  and  at  the  close  of  his  four 
years  at  Deventer  he  found  himself  the'  equal  in 
learning  of  many  older  lads. 

The  head-master  of  Deventer  at  the  time  was  a 
German,  Alexander  Hegius,  from  whom  and  from 
John  Sintheim,  one  of  the  teachers,  Erasmus  says  the 
school  was  beginning  to  get  a  glimmer  of  the  great 
light,  which,  spreading  from  Italy,  was  enlightening 
the  world.  Erasmus'  younger  friend  and  biographer, 
Beatus  Rhenanus,  speaks  of  this  Hegius  as  a  man 

•  H.  Kammel,  "  Erasmus  in  Deventer,"  in  ATeue  yahrbiicher  fUr 
Philologie  und  Paedagogik,  1874,  Bd.  no,  p.  305,  quotes  from'Wm. 
Bates,  an  English  editor  of  Erasmus'  Compendium  Vita  in  1687, 
the  desperate  conjecture  that  this  phrase  refers  to  some  manual  pre- 
pared by  the  father  of  Erasmus  !  I  suspect — assuming  that  we  have 
a  correct  text — that  the  reference  is  to  some  forgotten  Latin  phrase- 
book,  beginning  perhaps  with  the  words  ''pater  meus."  "  Tempora  " 
can  hardly  refer  to  anything  but  the  tenses  of  the  grammar. 


I 


1490]  School  and  Monastery  7 

of  very  moderate  learning,  who  knew  no  Greek  at 
all,  but  says  that  he  was  open  to  the  merits  of  the 
learning  he  did  not  share  and  gladly  accepted  the 
instruction  of  the  younger  German  scholar,  Rudolf 
Agricola,  who  had  just  returned  from  Italy  fresh 
with  the  eager  enthusiasm  of  that  land  of  all  promise. 
Erasmus  fancied  that  the  most  he  got  out  of  his 
Deventer  days  was  a  "  certain  odor  of  better  learn- 
ing "  which  came  to  him  from  his  older  mates,  who 
enjoyed  the  direct  teaching  of  Sintheim,  and  from 
the  occasional  hearing  of  Hegius,  who  on  feast  days 
lectured  to  the  whole  school.  There  can  be  no 
doubt,  however,  that  he  had  got  on  famously  in 
Latin  and  made  at  least  a  beginning  in  Greek.' 
Beatus  tells  a  very  pretty  story  of  Sintheim, — that 
having  heard  Erasmus  recite,  he  kissed  him  and 
said,  "  Go  on,  Erasmus,  you  will  some  day  reach 
the  very  summit  of  learning." 

After  four  years  at  Deventer  an  outbreak  of  the 
plague  carried  off  the  faithful  mother  and  within  a 
few  weeks  the  father  also,  both  just  over  forty  years 
of  age.  Gerard,  so  Erasmus  says,  left  a  modest 
fortune,  sufficient,  if  it  had  been  properly  husbanded, 
to  provide  for  his  own  education  at  a  university. 
The  guardians,  however,  to  whom  he  had  intrusted 
his  little  property,  the  uncle  Peter  Winckel  espe- 
cially, were  determined  not  to  give  the  boy  an 
academic  training,  but  instead  to  turn  him  into  the 
monastic  life.  Beatus  speaks  of  Deventer  as  "  a 
most  prolific  nursery  of  monks  of  every  kind,"  and 
Erasmus  employs  this  phrase,  with  every  shade  of 

'  See  in  ii.,  i66,  167,  the  adage,  "  quid  cani  et  balnea." 


8  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

anger  and   contempt,   for  the   next   institution   in 
which  his  lot  was  to  be  cast. 

This  was  a  house  of  the  so-called  "  Brethren  of 
the  Common  Life"  at  's  Hertogenbosch  (Bois-le- 
Duc).  This  widespread  organisation  had  for  more 
than  a  century  played  a  large  part  in  the  religious 
life  of  the  Low  Countries.  Founded  by  one  Gerard 
Groot  of  Deventer,  about  1380,  it  had  come  into 
existence  as  above  all  else  a  protest  against  the 
dominant  monasticism  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  was 
not  an  "  order  "  in  the  stricter  sense;  the  brethren 
were  not  bound  by  irrevocable  vows ;  they  were  not 
regularly  chartered  by  the  authority  of  the  Church. 
It  was  a  free  association  of  men  who  simply  came 
to  live  together,  giving  up  their  private  property,  in 
order  that  they  might  the  more  effectively,  as  they 
believed,  live  the  life  of  the  Spirit. 

Their  chief  occupation  was  the  copying  of  sacred 
writings,  but  they  professed  to  support  themselves 
by  manual  labour.  Without  calling  into  question 
any  of  the  teachings  of  the  Church,  their  greater 
lights,  Gerard  himself,  Thomas  h  Kempis,  John 
Wessel,  had  given  to  them  a  deeper  spiritual  mean- 
ing. They  had  sought  to  emphasise  rather  the  in- 
ner life  of  the  individual  than  the  outward,  visible 
institutions  of  the  Church.  Naturally  they  had 
from  the  first  been  suspected  by  all  those  elenrients 
of  the  Church  organisation  which  saw  their  future 
thus  threatened;  the  regular  orders,  the  Inquisition, 
the  secularised  priesthood,  had  each  in  its  turn 
sought  to  check  this  growing  protest  against  their 
peculiar  interests.     On  the  other  hand,  the  com- 


I490]  School  and  Monastery  9 

munities  in  which  the  brethren  had  established 
themselves  had  come  to  value  them  as  examples  of 
piety  and  types  of  a  virtue  which  did  not  tend  to 
separate  men  too  widely  from  the  life  of  the  world. 

Now  all  this  would  seem  to  point  precisely  in  the 
direction  towards  which  all  the  thought  of  Erasmus 
naturally  turned.  Of  the  two  early  instructors  who 
chiefly  impressed  him,  Hegius  and  Sintheim,  the 
latter  was  certainly  of  the  Brethren.  The  school  of 
Deventer,  while  probably  not  directly  under  their 
control,  was  profoundly  influenced  by  them.  Yet 
we  find  in  his  writings  repeated  reflections  upon 
their  houses  as  training-schools  for  the  monasteries 
and  upon  themselves  as  enemies  of  sound  learning 
and  practical  virtue. 

At  's  Hertogenbosch  he  spent — or,  as  he  himself 
says,  wasted — about  three  years.  Yet  he  admits 
that  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  had  made  good 
progress,  had  acquired  a  ready  style,  and  in  some 
good  authors  was  "  satis  paratus."  We  may  be 
quite  sure  that  he  would  not  have  exaggerated 
any  attainments  he  might  have  made  under  such 
circumstances.  His  residence  at  's  Hertogenbosch 
was  cut  short  by  an  illness,  a  quartan  fever,  as  he 
describes  it,  to  which  he  seems  to  have  been  sub- 
ject. He  was  thrown  back  upon  his  guardians  and, 
if  we  may  believe  his  own  later  testimony,  he 
found  the  whole  world  in  a  conspiracy  to  force  him 
into  the  monastic  life.  The  uncle  Peter,  whom  he 
describes  as  a  man  of  good  outward  reputation,  but 
selfish,  ignorant,  and  bigoted,  was  especially  deter- 
mined on  this  point.     Erasmus  makes  what  he  can 


lo  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

out  of  the  ruin  of  his  little  fortune  as  a  motive  for 
getting  rid  of  him,  but  rather  spoils  the  force  of  his 
argument  by  representing  Peter  as  upon  principle 
devoted  to  getting  his  pupils  into  monasteries. 
"  He  used  to  brag  about  how  many  youths  he  had 
captured  every  year  for  Francis  or  Dominic  or  Bene- 
dict or  Augustine  or  Bridget." 

That  the  effort  of  the  guardians  was  to  persuade 
Erasmus  to  become  a  member  of  the  Brethren  of 
the  Common  Life  is  made  probable  by  his  use  of  the 
term  "  Fratres  Collatiotiarii."  This  was  one  of  the 
popular  names  for  the  Brethren,  derived  from  their 
peculiar  practice  of  giving  moral  instruction  by 
means  of  conferences  {collationes).  Erasmus  in- 
cludes them  all  in  his  sweeping  denunciations  of  all 
schools  and  monasteries  as  "  man-stealers. "  "  For- 
merly," he  says,  "  they  were  not  monks  at  all;  now 
they  are  a  half-way  kind  of  people,  monks  in  what 
suits  them,  non-monks  in  what  they  don't  like." 
"  They  have  nested  themselves  in  everywhere  and 
make  a  regular  business  of  hunting  up  boys  to  be 
trained."  A  clever  lad  of  quick  parts  was  an  espe- 
cial prize.  "  They  ply  him  with  torments,  break 
him  with  threats,  reproofs,  and  many  other  arts,  and 
call  this  '  training.'  Thus  they  mould  him  for  the 
monastic  life.  If  this  is  not'  man-stealing,'  what 
is?" 

One  might  have  supposed  that  the  more  stupid 
the  boy,  the  greater  the  reason  for  urging  him  to  a 
life  whose  essence  is  described  as  stupidness;  but 
Erasmus  declares  the  opposite  and  makes  himself 
the  illustration.     All  these  devices  were  tried  upon 


i49o]  School  and  Monastery  n 

him.  Violence  worked  as  badly  with  him  then  as 
ever  afterward,  and  so  one  of  the  teachers,  for 
whom  he  shows  some  real  affection,  was  set  to  try 
the  method  of  persuasion.  Erasmus,  however,  de- 
clared that  he  was  too  young,  that  he  knew  neither 
the  world  nor  himself,  and  that  it  seemed  much 
wiser  for  him  to  pass  some  years  yet  in  the  study  of 
good  literature  before  making  so  important  a  de- 
cision. These  were  not  bad  people;  they  were 
simply  ignorant  men,  shut  up  in  a  corner,  always 
comparing  themselves  one  with  the  other,  but  never 
with  men  of  the  world — what  could  be  expected  of 
them  but  narrowness  and  bigotry  ?  In  the  reflected 
light  of  later  years  the  great  scholar  saw  himself 
already  at  fourteen  the  champion  of  pure  learning 
as  against  the  benumbing  influence  of  the  schools. 

A  final  assault  was  made  by  one  of  the  guardians. 
Erasmus  and  his  elder  brother — we  are  following 
the  Grunnius  letter — had  prepared  themselves  by 
an  agreement  to  stand  by  each  other.  The  younger 
was  to  be  spokesman  and  was  very  doubtful  of  the 
elder's  firmness  of  purpose.  The  guardian  came  in 
all  kindness  to  congratulate  the  boys  on  their  good 
fortune  in  having,  through  his  good  offices,  obtained 
a  place  among  the  canons.  Erasmus  thanked  him 
kindly,  but  said,  as  he  had  said  to  his  teacher,  that 
they  had  decided  not  to  venture  upon  this  unknown 
way  of  life  until  they  should  have  gained  in  years 
and  knowledge.  The  guardian,  instead  of  being 
pleased  with  the  manliness  of  the  answer,  "  flared 
up  as  if  someone  had  struck  him,  could  hardly  keep 
his  hands  off  them,  and  began  to  call  names," — 


12  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

"  you  recognise  the  voice  of  the  monks,"  Erasmus 
adds  slyly  to  the  papal  secretary.  The  end  of  it 
was  that  the  guardian  threw  up  his  trust,  declared 
that  the  boys'  estate  was  all  spent  and  they  might 
see  to  it  how  they  got  on  in  the  world.  "  Very 
well,"  Erasmus  heard  himself  saying  through  his 
tears,  "  we  accept  your  resignation  and  release  you 
from  all  care  of  us." 

Then  the  guardian  sent  his  brother,  a  man  famous 
for  his  gentle  ways.  He  invited  the  lads  into  the 
garden,  offered  them  wine,  and  with  all  gentleness 
entertained  them  with  the  marvellous  charms  of  the 
monastic  life.  "  Many  a  lie  he  told  them  of  the 
wondrous  happiness  of  that  institution."  At  this 
the  elder  gave  way,  and  this  gives  Erasmus  a  text 
for  an  assault  upon  the  good  name  of  his  dead 
brother — supposing  this  brother  to  be  a  real  person. 
He  was  a  dull  fellow,  eager  only  for  gain,  sly,  crafty, 
a  wine-bibber  and  worse — "  in  short,  so  different 
from  the  younger  that  one  might  think  him  a 
changeling;  for  he  had  nothing  in  common  with 
him  but  his  evil  genius." 

Hereupon  follows  Erasmus'  famous  description  of 
the  pressure  which  finally  drove  him  into  the  mon- 
astery. It  is  plainly  a  work  of  literary  art,  with 
little  of  the  directness  of  simple  truth ;  but  we  have 
no  reason  to  doubt  that  it  fairly  represents  one  side 
of  the  impressions  under  which  a  youth  of  Erasmus' 
tastes  and  condition  would  naturally  be  brought. 
He  describes  it  as  a  conspiracy  deliberately  set  in 
motion  by  a  hostile  guardian,  but  one  hardly  needs 
this  explanation  to  account  for  the  fact  that  a  lad 


I490]  School  and  Monastery  13 

in  the  year  of  grace  1483  should  hear  every  manner 
of  description  of  the  monastic  life.  These  things 
were  in  the  air.  To  be  a  scholar  had,  up  to  that 
time,  been  almost  the  same  thing  as  to  be  a  monk, 
and  if  Erasmus  desired  to  be  a  scholar,  here  was, 
apparently,  the  line  of  least  resistance. 

The  youth  was  at  that  crisis  which  comes  to  every 
young  man,  when  for  the  first  time  he  is  called  upon 
to  decide  for  himself,  with  such  help  as  he  can  get 
from  others,  what  course  of  life  he  ought  to  follow. 
He  describes  himself  as  just  entering  upon  his  six- 
teenth year,  without  experience  of  the  world  and 
by  nature  disinclined  to  everything  but  study;  of 
frail  body,  though  strong  enough  for  mental  occu- 
pation. He  had  passed  all  his  life  in  schools  and 
believed  that  the  low  fever,  from  which  he  had 
suffered  more  than  a  year,  was  the  consequence  of 
this  narrow  and  dreary  training.  Deserted  on  every 
side,  with  no  one  to  turn  to, — was  not  this  enough 
to  break  a  tender  youth  like  him  ? 

Still  he  held  out,  and.  then  began  a  new  series  of 
persecutions.  "  Monks  and  semi-monks,  relatives, 
both  male  and  female,  young  and  old,  known  and 
unknown,"  were  set  upon  him. 

"  Some  of  these, ".he  says,  "  were  such  natural  born 
fools  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  their  sacred  garments, 
they  might  have  gone  about  as  clowns  with  cap  and  bells. 
Others  sinned  through  superstition  rather  than  through 
any  ill-will, — but  what  matters  it  whether  one  be  choked 
to  death  by  folly  or  by  evil  intention  ?  One  painted  a 
lovely  picture  of  monastic  repose,  picking  out  only  the 


14  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

most  attractive  features; — why,  the  quartan  fever  itself 
might  be  made  attractive  after  this  fashion." 

Another  gave  an  overdrawn  picture  of  the  evils  of 
this  world — as  if  monks  were  not  of  this  world  !  In- 
deed they  do  represent  themselves  as  safe  on  board 
ship  while  all  the  rest  of  the  world  is  struggling  in 
the  waves  and  must  surely  perish  unless  they  cast 
out  a  spar  or  a  rope.  Another  spread  before  his 
eyes  the  frightful  torments  of  hell — as  if  there  were 
no  open  road  from  the  monasteries  into  hell ! 

Others  sought  to  alarm  him  with  "  old  wives' 
tales  "  of  prodigies  and  monstrous  visions.  They 
praised  the  monkish  communion  in  good  works,  "  as 
if  they  had  a  superfluity  of  these,  when  really  they 
need  the  mercy  of  God  more  than  laymen."  In 
short,  there  was  no  engine  of  any  sort  that  was  not 
set  at  work  on  the  poor  lad,  and  they  spent  upon 
him  as  much  energy  as  would  go  to  the  taking  of 
an  opulent  city.  So  he  hung  "  between  the  victim 
and  the  knife,"  waiting  for  some  god  to  show  him 
a  hope  of  safety,  when  by  chance  he  met  an  old 
friend  who  had  been  from  his  earliest  years  an  in- 
mate of  the  monastery  at  Steyn,  near  Gouda.  This 
Cantelius,  or  Cornelius,  ^whom  Erasmus  describes  as 
driven  into  the  monastery  partly  by  the  love  of  ease 
and  good  living,  partly  as  a  last  resort,  because  he 
had  failed  to  make  his  fortune  in  Italy,  conceived 
a  mighty  affection  for  the  boy  and  joined  in  the 
chorus  of  exhortation.  Especially,  knowing  his 
taste,  he  dwelt  upon  the  abundance  of  books  and 
the  leisure  for  study  until  "  to  hear  him  one  would 


I490]  School  and  Monastery  15 

suppose  that  this  was  not  so  much  a  monastery  as  a 
garden  of  the  Muses."  Erasmus  returned  this 
affection,  "  ignorant  as  yet  of  human  nature  and 
judging  others  by  himself."  CorneHus  left  no  stone 
unturned,  but  still  Erasmus  resisted,  until  finally 
some  ' '  yet  more  powerful  battering-rams  ' '  were 
applied.  What  these  were  he  does  not  precisely 
say,  but  only  enumerates  again  the  loss  of  property 
and  the  pressure  of  his  friends.  At  last,  "  rather 
tormented  than  persuaded,"  he  goes  back  to  Cor- 
nelius, "  tantiim  fabiilandi  gratia,'" — whatever  he 
may  wish  to  imply  by  that, — and  consents  to  try  the 
experiment,  without,  however,  committing  himself 
to  remain  permanently.  His  only  condition  was 
that  he  would  not  go  to  "  the  filthy,  unwholesome 
place,  unfit  for  oxen,  which  his  guardian  had  recom- 
mended." 

Still  Erasmus  cannot  help  fancying  himself  abused. 
He  was  charmingly  treated  ;  no  duties  were  pressed 
upon  him ;  everybody  flattered  him  and  coddled 
him  to  his  heart's  content.  He  had  a  capital  chance 
to  read  all  the  "  good  literature  "  he  wished,  for 
CorneHus  soon  came  to  regard  him  as  a  kind  of 
private  tutor  and  kept  him  at  it  whole  nights  long, 
much  to  the  injury,  he  says,  of  his  poor  little  body. 
"  After  all,"  thought  Erasmus,  "  this  was  what  the 
selfish  fellow  wanted  me  here  for."  In  a  few 
months  the  friends  had  thus  read  through  the  prin- 
cipal Latin  authors;  so  that  this  novitiate  must  have 
been  for  Erasmus  a  time  of  great  profit  along  the 
very  line  for  which  he  professed  unlimited  en- 
thusiasm. 


i6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

As  the  time  drew  near  for  putting  off  the  secular 
and  donning  the  "  religious  "  garb,  the  same  con- 
flict is  repeated.  Erasmus,  looking  back  upon  his 
youth,  says  that  his  only  ambition  was  for  scholar- 
ship, pure  and  simple,  and  that,  therefore,  his  natural 
wish  was  to  go  to  a  university.  His  experience  in 
the  monastery  had  made  it  clear  to  him  that  this 
was  not  the  life  he  wished  to  lead,  but  precisely 
why,  he  does  not  satisfactorily  explain.  Reasons, 
indeed,  he  gives  in  plenty:  his  health  was  not 
good ;  he  needed  plenty  of  good  food  and  at  regular 
intervals;  he  could  not  bear  to  be  broken  of  his 
sleep,  and  so  forth.  His  delicate  constitution  was 
plainly  a  source  of  pride  to  him  as  evidence  of  a 
finer  spirit  than  those  about  him  possessed. 

"  All  these  things  are  a  mere  joke  to  the  coarse-bred 
beasts  who  would  thrive  on  hay  and  enjoy  it.  But  skilled 
physicians  know  that  this  delicacy  is  the  peculiarity  of  a 
specially  refined  body  and  of  the  rarer  spirits,  and  pre- 
scribe for  them  food  cooked  so  as  to  be  digestible  and 
eaten  frequently  but  sparingly;  whereas  you  will  find 
others  who,  if  you  once  fill  them  up,  can  hold  out  a  long 
time  without  inconvenience,  like  vultures." 

Especially  against  fish,  Erasmus  says,  he  had  such  a 
loathing  that  the  very  smell  of  it  gave  him  a  head- 
ache and  fever. 

These  objections  are  highly  trivial.  They  agree, 
for  one  thing,  very  ill  with  Erasmus*  charges  against 
monks,  for  of  all  things  he  accuses  them  most  often 
of  easy  and  luxurious  living.  There  were  ways 
enough,  as  he  found  out  afterward  for  his  own  con- 


i49o]  School  and  Monastery  17 

venience,  of  getting  around  the  burdensome  require- 
ments of  the  cloister  and,  on  the  other  hand,  out  of 
these  very  restrictions  there  had  gone  forth  many  a 
vigorous  leader  of  human  thought  and  action.  The 
fact  is,  probably,  that  Erasmus  felt  ^ready  stirring 
within  him  that  restless  impulse  towards  the  free, 
unfettered  development  of  his  own  individuality 
which  was  to  be  the  guide  and  motive  of  his  life. 
He  accepted  the  monastery  because  under  the  cir- 
cumstances there  was  nothing  else  to  do;  but  it 
could  not  satisfy  him. 

Such,  at  all  events,  is  the  impression  he  desired  to 
produce  when  writing  this  account.     He  says : 

"  In  such  a  place  learning  had  neither  honour  nor  use. 
He  [meaning  himself]  was  not  an  enemy  of  piety,  but  had 
no  liking  for  formulas  and  ceremonies  in  which  pretty 
much  their  whole  life  consists.  Besides,  in  an  association 
like  this,  as  a  rule  the  dull  of  intellect  are  put  to  the 
front,  half  fools,  who  love  their  bellies  more  than  letters. 
If  any  exceptional  talent  appears  among  them,  one  who 
is  born  for  learning,  he  is  crushed  down  lest  he  rise  to 
distinction.  And  yet  such  creatures  must  have  a  tyrant, 
and  it  generally  happens  that  the  dullest  and  wickedest, 
if  only  he  be  of  sturdy  body,  is  of  most  account  in  the 
gang.  Now  then,  consider  what  a  cross  it  would  be  for 
a  man  born  to  the  Muses  to  pass  his  whole  life  among 
such  persons.  There  is  no  hope  of  deliverance  unless, 
perchance,  one  might  be  set  over  a  convent  of  virgins, 
and  that  is  the  worst  slavery  there  is." 

Here  indeed  we  may  see  what  was  really  troubling 
Erasmus.     It  was  not  any  special  hostility  to  the 


i8  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

monastery.  It  was  a  dread  of  anything  and  any- 
body that  could  make  any  lasting  claims  upon  him. 
The  monastery  simply  came  in  for  a  larger  share  of 
his  abuse  because  its  claim  upon  him  was  more 
burdensome  and  more  evident.  It  was  not  true 
that  a  man  bred  a  monk  could  not  rise  to  almost 
any  distinction  in  almost  any  field.  The  times  just 
before  Erasmus  were  filled  with  examples  of  men 
who,  through  their  own  talent  and  energy,  had  made 
their  monastic  connection  the  ladder  by  which  they 
had  mounted  to  far-reaching  usefulness.  Even 
Luther,  fiery  spirit  as  he  was,  worked  his  way  to 
liberty  along  the  path  of  monastic  conformity. 

For  Erasmus  a  thorough-going  conformity  to  any- 
thing was  an  impossibility.  Making  all  allowance 
for  the  effect  of  later  experience  upon  his  record  of 
youthful  feeling,  we  may  well  believe  that  he  really 
felt  at  the  moment  of  his  struggle  something  of 
what  he  puts  into  his  defence : 

"  What  could  such  a  mind  and  such  a  body  do  in  a 
monastery  ?  As  well  put  a  fish  into  a  meadow  or  an  ox 
into  the  sea.  When  those  fathers  knew  this,  if  there  had 
been  a  spark  of  true  human  love  in  them,  ought  they  not, 
of  their  own  accord,  to  have  come  to  the  aid  of  his  youth- 
ful ignorance  or  thoughtlessness  and  have  advised  him 
thus:  '  My  son,  it  is  idle  to  make  a  hopeless  struggle; 
you  are  not  suited  to  this  way  of  life  nor  this  way  of  life 
to  you;  choose  another  while  as  yet  no  harm  is  done. 
Christ  dwelleth  everywhere,  not  here  alone;  piety  may 
be  cultivated  under  any  garment,  if  only  the  heart  be 
right.  We  will  help  you  to  return  to  liberty  under  suit- 
able guardians  and  friends,  so  that  in  future  you  may  not 


I490]  School  and  Monastery  19 

be  a  burden  to  us,  nor  we  prove  your  destruction.'  ' 
That  would  have  been  a  speech  worthy  indeed  of  pious 
men.  But  no  one  gave  a  word  of  warning;  nay,  rather, 
they  moved  their  whole  machinery  to  prevent  this  one 
poor  little  tunny  from  being  drawn  out  of  the  net." 

Above  all,  he  says,  they  worked  upon  his  acute 
sense  of  shame.  If  he  should  turn  back  now  he 
would  be  disgraced  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man. 
His  friends  and  guardians  again  joined  in  the  cry 
and  finally 

"by  baseness  they  conquered.  The  youth,  with  ab- 
horrence in  his  heart  and  with  reluctant  words,  was  com- 
pelled to  take  the  cowl,  precisely  as  captives  in  war  offer 
their  hands  to  the  victor  to  be  bound,  or  as  conquered 
men  go  through  protracted  torments,  not  because  they 
will,  but  because  it  pleases  their  master.  He  overcame 
his  spirit,  but  no  man  can  make  his  body  over  new.  The 
youth  did  as  men  in  prison  do,  consoled  himself  with 
study  as  far  as  it  was  permitted  him; — for  this  had  to  be 
done  secretly,  while  drunkenness  was  openly  tolerated." 

It  has  seemed  worth  while  to  follow  rather  closely 
this  account  of  his  early  years,  as  given  chiefly  by 
Erasmus  himself,  partly  because  it  is  almost  our 
only  source  of  information  and  partly  because  it 
gives  at  the  outset  so  good  an  illustration  of  his  way 
of  dressing  up  every  subject  he  touched  to  suit  the 
occasion.*  His  biographers  have  generally  done 
little  more  than  copy  out  the  Grunnius  letter  as  an 


'  Compare  page  27. 

*  On  the  question  of  the  value  of  Erasmus'  letter  see  note  to  p.  223. 


20  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

authentic  record  of  his  early  experience,  and  its  con- 
tents have  become  the  common  property  of  our 
books  of  reference.  It  must,  however,  be  carefully 
studied  in  view  of  the  circumstances  under  which  it 
was  written  and  by  comparison  with  the  little  we 
can  learn  from  other  sources.  Especially  must  all 
Erasmus'  later  criticism  of  the  monastic  life  be  re- 
ferred to  one  of  his  earliest  literary  performances, 
the  treatise,  On  the  Contempt  of  the  World  {de 
contemptti  mundi)y  written,  probably,  while  he  was 
still  at  Steyn,  and  when  he  was  about  twenty  years 
old.  This  is  an  essay  on  the  charms  of  the  monas- 
tery as  compared  to  "  the  world."  It  purports  to 
be  written  by  a  monk  to  a  nephew  who  was  con- 
sidering how  his  life  should  be  spent.  Excepting 
in  the  concluding  paragraph  there  is  hardly  an  indi- 
cation of  even  a  question  as  to  the  superiority  of 
the  solitary  life  over  the  life  of  society.  The  tone 
throughout  is  serious  to  the  point  of  dulness.  There 
is  hardly  a  trace  of  the  sparkle  and  liveliness  which 
marked  most  of  Erasmus*  later  writing.  He  be- 
gins with  the  same  laboured  comparison  between 
human  life  and  a  troubled  sea  which  he  later  ridi- 
cules:— the  sea  with  its  storms,  its  hidden  rocks,  its 
violent  alternations,  its  siren  voices  luring  the  sailor 
to  destruction.  There  is  danger  on  the  land,  but 
one  is  far  nearer  to  it  on  the  sea.  Life  offers  many 
joys,  but  none  to  compare  with  safety.  Earthly 
joys  are  so  hedged  about  with  miseries  that  they 
lose  their  proper  charm. 

"  Oh,  bitter  sweetness,  so  walled  in  before,  behind  and 


t 


\ 

[pTr 

'1 

PARISH  CHURCH  AT  ALDINGTON,  KENT. 

FROM  KNIGHT'S  "  LIFE  OF  ERASMUS." 


I 


1490]  School  and  Monastery  21 

on  every  side  with  wretchedness.  I  said  just  now  that 
man  was  coming  to  the  condition  of  the  brutes;  but  here 
I  think  the  brutes  have  greatly  the  advantage  of  us;  for 
they  enjoy  freely  whatever  pleasures  they  will.  But  man, 
— good  God!  how  brief  and  how  low  a  thing  is  this  tick- 
ling of  the  throat  and  the  belly!  " 

Marriage  is  all  very  well  for  those  who  cannot  live 
otherwise,  but  it  is  a  necessary  evil.  Earthly  honours 
are  vain  and  fleeting.  If  the  great  king  Alexander 
himself  could  look  upon  the  present  world  he  would 
unquestionably  warn  us  that  even  his  unparalleled 
powers  and  dignities  were  as  nothing  compared  with 
the  victory  of  the  man  who  knows  how  to  govern 
himself.  Death  makes  an  end  of  all  and  does  not 
wait  for  all  to  come  to  maturity,  but  cuts  down 
many  in  the  flower  of  their  youth. 

Then  the  argument  turns  to  the  positive  attrac- 
tions of  the  monastery  and  these  are  chiefly  three : 
liberty,  tranquillity,  and  happiness.  As  to  the  last 
two  the  line  of  defence  is  tolerably  obvious ;  but  to 
represent  the  monastery  as  the  abode  of  liberty  re- 
quired no  little  ingenuity.  Erasmus  solved  the 
difficulty  by  showing  that  all  the  relations  of  human 
life  were  but  so  many  restraints  on  personal  free- 
dom, while  the  life  in  the  monastery,  imposing 
limits  only  upon  the  body,  allows  the  soul  to  enjoy 
the  highest  kind  of  freedom. 

Now  which  of  these  documents,  the  de  contemptu 
mundi,  written  at  the  time,  or  the  Grunnius  letter 
written  perhaps  thirty  years  afterward,  represents 
the  true  Erasmus  as  he  was  at  the  age  of  twenty  ? 


ii  Deslderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

If  one  tries  to  form  an  opinion  from  facts  rather 
than  from  words,  one  must  feel  that  there  is  at 
least  room  for  the  question.  Erasmus  speaks  in  the 
letf^  as  if  his  intellectual  life  had  been  utterly 
crushed  by  the  discipline  of  the  monastery,  but  on 
the  other  hand  there  is  every  indication  that  he  had 
all  the  opportunity  for  study  that  he  could  desire. 
Even  if  we  think  of  the  de  contemptu  mundi  as  a 
mere  piece  of  sophomoric  composition,  it  shows  a 
very  great  acquisition,  both  of  knowledge  and  of 
power,  in  a  lad  of  twenty.  It  cannot  have  been 
written  to  please  any  teacher,  for  he  was  at  this 
time  under  no  regular  instruction. 

He  was  no  longer  at  school,  but  was  simply  edu- 
cating himself  by  the  only  pedagogical  method 
which  ever  yet  produced  any  results  anywhere, — 
namely,  by  the  method  of  his  own  tireless  energy  in 
continuous  study  and  practice.  This  essay  shows  a 
command  of  classic  literature  in  quotation  and  allu- 
sion quite  inconceivable  except  as  a  result  of  per- 
sistent study.  Almost  as  much  may  be  said  of  the 
style.  If  it  lacks  much  of  the  vivacity  and  person- 
ality of  the  later  Erasmus,  it  has  already  gained  a 
very  considerable  degree  of  correctness  and  force. 
The  conclusion  is  irresistible  that  the  description  of 
the  charm  of  the  monastery  as  a  place  of  refuge 
from  the  distractions  of  the  world,  and  as  affording 
leisure  for  the  higher  life,  is  a  fair  reflection  of  Eras- 
mus' own  experience  up  to  that  time.  The  monas- 
tery had  served  his  purpose  and  now  he  was  ready 
for  something  wider  and  freer,  but  he  could  not 
justify  his  quitting  the  monastic  life  without  piling 


I490]  School  and  Monastery  23 

charges  upon  charges  against  the  institution  that 
had  tided  over  for  him,  as  gently  as  its  conditions 
permitted,  these  years  of  helplessness. 

Nor  had  his  life  been  by  any  means  a  solitary  one. 
He  had  formed  an  intimate  friendship  with  a  cer- 
tain   William    Hermann    of   Gouda   and  with  him 

he  spent,"  says  Beatus,  "  days  and  nights  over 
his  books.  There  was  not  a  volume  of  the  Latin 
authors  which  he  had  not  thoroughly  studied.  The 
time  which  their  companions  basely  spent  in  games, 
in  sleep,  in  guzzling,  these  two  spent  in  turning  over 
books  and  in  improving  their  style." 

Another  friendship  dating  from  this  period  was 
that  with  Servatius,  a  fellow-monk  and  afterward 
prior  of  Steyn.  No  one  of  Erasmus'  correspondents 
seems  to  have  stood  nearer  to  his  heart.  The  group 
of  letters  addressed  to  him,  probably  just  before 
and  just  after  the  writer  had  left  the  monastery, 
show  a  warmth  of  affection  and  a  real  desire  for 
affection  in  return  which  bear  every  mark  of  sin- 
cerity. Even  long  after  their  ways  had  parted  for 
ever  Erasmus  writes  to  Servatius  with  a  respect 
which  has  no  tinge  of  bitterness  in  it.  If  his  hatred 
of  monasticism  had  been  as  furious  as  he  would 
often  have  men  believe,  hardly  anyone  would  have 
been  a  more  natural  victim  for  him  than  this  prior 
of  the  house  where  he  is^popularly  believed  to  have 
suffered  such  a  grievous  experience. 

So  far  as  the  two  things  which  he  always  described 
as  the  requisites  of  a  happy  life,  books  and  friend- 
ship, could  go,  the  life  of  Erasmus  at  Steyn  ought 
to  have  been  a  happy  one. 


24  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1467- 

Let  us  add  one  more  contribution  to  the  problem, 
— a  letter '  written  at  the  age  of  sixty  to  a  certain 
monk  who  had  grown  restless  during  the  stirring 
time  of  the  Reformation : 

"  I  congratulate  you  on  your  bodily  health,  but  am 
very  sorry  to  hear  of  your  distress  of  mind.  .  .  . 
I  fear  you  have  been  imposed  upon  by  the  trickery  of 
certain  men  who  are  bragging  nowadays,  with  splendid 
phrases,  of  their  apostolic  liberty.  Believe  me,  if  you 
knew  more  of  the  affair,  your  own  form  of  life  would  be 
less  wearisome  to  you.  I  see  a  kind  of  men  springing 
up,  from  which  my  very  soul  revolts.  I  see  that  no  one 
is  growing  better,  but  all  are  growing  worse,  so  far  at 
least  as  I  have  made  their  acquaintance,  so  that  I  greatly 
regret  that  formerly  I  advocated  in  writing  the  liberty  of 
the  spirit,  though  I  did  this  with  a  good  purpose  and  with 
no  suspicion  that  a  generation  like  this  would  come  into 
being.     .     .     . 

"  You  have  lived  now  so  many  years  in  your  commun- 
ity without  blame,  and  now,  as  you  say,  your  life  is  in- 
clining toward  its  evening — you  may  be  eight  or  nine 
years  my  junior.  You  are  living  in  a  most  comfortable 
place,  and  in  a  most  healthful  climate.  You  derive  great 
happiness  from  the  conversation  of  learned  men;  you 
have  plenty  of  good  books  and  a  clever  talent.  What 
can  be  sweeter  in  this  world  than  to  wander  in  such 
meadows  and  taste  beforehand,  as  it  were,  the  joys  of  the 
heavenly  life  ?  especially  at  your  age  and  in  these  days, 
the  most  turbulent  and  ruinous  that  ever  were.  I  have 
known  some,  who,  deceived  by  the  phantom  of  liberty, 
have  deserted  their  orders.  They  changed  their  dress 
and  took  to  themselves  wives,  destitute  meanwhile,  living 

'  iii.',  1024. 


I 


I490]  School  and  Monastery  25 

as  exiles  and  hateful  to  their  relatives  to  whom  they  had 
been  dear. 

"  Finally,  my  dearest  brother  in  Christ,  by  our  ancient 
and  unbroken  friendship  and  by  Christ  I  beg,  I  beseech, 
I  implore  you  to  put  this  discontent  wholly  out  of  your 
mind;  and  to  give  no  ear  to  the  fatal  discourses  of  men 
who  will  bring  you  no  comfort,  but  will  rather  laugh  at 
you  when  they  have  trapped  you  into  their  snare.  If 
with  your  whole  heart  you  shall  turn  yourself  entirely  to 
meditation  on  the  heavenly  life,  believe  me  you  will  find 
abundant  consolation,  and  that  little  restlessness  you 
speak  of  will  vanish  like  smoke." 


CHAPTER  II 

PARIS   AND   HOLLAND 
I 492- I 498 

IT  may  well  be  doubted,  especially  in  view  of  his 
later  experience,  whether  a  residence  at  Paris  or 
at  any  other  university  during  just  these  years  of 
probation  would  have  been  more  profitable  to  Eras- 
mus than  his  life  at  Steyn.  He  had  been  learning 
the  invaluable  lesson  of  self-education,  and  all  his 
life  was  to  be  the  richer  for  it.  No  doubt  he  was 
beginning  to  be  restless  under  restraint,  and  think- 
ing, as  any  monk  had  a  perfect  right  to  do,  of  how 
he  might  widen  his  opportunity. 

He  says,  we  remember,  that  there  was  no  way  out 
of  the  monastic  life  except  to  become  the  head  of  a 
nunnery,  a  remark  so  obviously  foolish  that  it  is 
worth  recalling  only  to  notice  how  completely  his 
own  experience  contradicted  it. 

The  Bishop  of  Cambrai,  planning  to  go  to  Italy, 
wanted  a  young  scholar  of  good  parts  to  help  him 
out  with  his  necessary  Latin.  He  had  heard  of 
Erasmus,  how  we  do  not  know,  and  invited  him  to 
join  his  court  and  make  the  Italian  journey  with 
him.  This  may  well  have  seemed  to  the  young 
man  a  glorious  opportunity.     Italy  was  then,  even 

26 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  ^7 

more  than  it  has  ever  been  since,  the  goal  toward 
which  every  ambitious  youth  of  scholarly  taste 
naturally  turned.  Doubtless,  also,  in  the  larger 
liberty  (or  bondage)  of  the  great  world,  his  monastic 
experience  seemed  narrow  and  sordid  enough.  He 
calls  the  Bishop  his  god  aVo  firixavrj^.  "  Had  it  not 
been  for  this  deliverance  his  distinguished  talent 
would  have  rotted  in  idleness,  in  luxury  and  in 
revelling. "  Evidently  he  would  have  had  no  reason 
to  dread  the  severity  of  discipline  for  which  he 
fancied  his  health  was  too  delicate.  The  Bishop 
made  sure  of  his  prize  by  securing  the  approval  of 
the  Bishop  of  Utrecht,  in  whose  diocese  the  monas- 
tery lay,  and  also  of  the  prior  and  the  general  of  the 
order.  The  excellent  prior  himself  had  long  been 
convinced  that  Erasmus  and  the  monastery  were 
unsuited  to  each  other  and  had  recommended  him 
to  take  some  such  opportunity  as  now  offered.' 
This  was  the  kind  of  especially  unreasoning  beast 
whom  Erasmus  says  the  monks  were  wont  to  choose 
for  their  tyrant ! 

The  relation  into  which  Erasmus  now  entered 
with  the  Bishop  of  Cambrai  was  one  of  the  most 
agreeable  that  could  present  itself  to  a  young 
scholar.  It  demanded  of  him  but  small  services, 
and  those  of  a  kind  most  attractive  to  him,  and  yet 
it  gave  him  a  sense  of  usefulness  which  saved  his 
self-respect.  As  a  member  of  the  Bishop's  house- 
hold his  living  was  provided  for,  and  leisure  was 
secured  for  the  studies  toward  which  he  was  now 
eagerly  looking  forward.     Once  for  all  we  have  to 

'iii.';  1529-D. 


28  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

bear  in  mind  in  studying  the  life  of  a  scholar,  that 
pure  scholarship  is  never,  and  never  has  been,  self- 
supporting.  The  only  question  has  been  how  to 
provide  for  its  maintenance  in  ways  least  dangerous 
to  its  integrity  and  least  offensive  to  its  own  sense 
of  dignity.  In  our  day  we  are  familiar  with  endow- 
ments by  which  the  earlier  stages  of  the  scholar's 
life  are  made  accessible  to  talent  without  wealth, 
but  in  its  later  stages  scholarship  is  held  to  a  pretty 
strict  account  and  is  expected  to  give  a  very  tangible 
quid  pro  quo  for  all  it  receives. 

In  Erasmus'  time  this  dependence  of  learning 
upon  endowment  was  more  frankly  acknowledged, 
and  might  be  indefinitely  prolonged.  Undoubtedly 
the  easiest  form  of  such  dependence  was  the  monas- 
tic. There  is  no  doubt  that  Erasmus'  de  contemptu 
mundi  gives  a  perfectly  fair  ideal  picture  of  the 
normal  monastic  liberty  and  its  suitableness  for  the 
scholar,  but  for  him  this  life  had  also  its  dangers 
and  its  limitations.  Next  to  the  endowment  through 
the  monastery  there  was  provision  by  private  patron- 
age. It  had  come  to  be  more  than  ever  before  in 
Europe,  the  duty  and  the  pride  of  all  princes,  lay  and 
clerical,  to  devote  some  part  of  the  revenue  which 
came  from  their  people  to  promoting  their  higher 
intellectual  interests.  Scholars  were  thought  of  as 
a  decoration  as  indispensable  to  the  well  equipped 
princely  court  as  was  the  court  jester  or  the  private 
religious  counsellor. 

With  the  progress  of  a  new  classic  culture,  all 
public  documents  were  taking  on  a  higher  tone  and 
demanded  a  more  highly  trained  body  of  scholars 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  29 

for  their  preparation.  But  such  a  position  might 
become  laborious,  too  mechanical  and  professional 
for  men  of  real  genius.  Then  there  was  the  alter- 
native of  teaching,  either  privately  in  the  employ 
of  some  rich  family,  or  publicly  at  a  university.  In 
Erasmus'  time  we  find  traces  of  university  freedom, 
but  they  were  not  significant  of  the  normal  con- 
dition of  things.  The  university  was  a  great  cor- 
poration with  a  reputation  to  keep  up,  and  compelled 
to  preserve  at  least  a  decent  uniformity  in  its  in- 
struction. A  man  of  independent  genius  could 
hardly  have  found  himself  entirely  at  his  ease  there, 
even  if  he  were  able  to  win  one  of  the  endowments 
by  which  to  live.  We  shall  see  that  Erasmus  was 
not  attracted  by  the  university  career,  and  only  re- 
sorted to  the  method  of  private  tutoring  when  other 
resources  failed. 

Another  form  of  endowment  of  scholarship  was 
through  the  application  of  church  foundations  to 
this  purpose.  Of  course  this  was  in  a  sense  a  per- 
version of  trusts,  but  there  were  many  excuses  for 
it.  For  one  thing,  the  ends  of  religion  and  of  edu- 
cation have  always,  under  Christianity,  been  largely 
identified.  Even  in  our  own  country,  and  down  to 
the  present  moment,  endowments  for  education 
have  been  almost  primarily  thought  of  as  made  in 
the  service  of  religion.  The  prime  function  of 
Christian  scholarship  has  been  the  maintenance  of 
the  religious  tradition.  So  that,  when  a  man  was 
given  a  "  living  "  out  of  church  funds,  it  was  felt 
that  he  might  properly  make  use  of  this  income  to 
carry  on  his  personal  studies.     Especially  if,  as  a 


30  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

result  of  those  studies,  he  produced  works  of  re- 
ligious edification,  the  purpose  of  the  endowment 
was  not  thought  to  be  violated.  Furthermore,  if 
with  this  endowment  there  were  connected  distinct 
duties  involving  the  "  cure  of  souls,"  no  one  was 
shocked  if  the  scholarly  holder  of  the  "living" 
hired  a  lesser  talent  with  a  small  percentage  of  the 
income  to  perform  these  duties,  while  he  himself 
devoted  his  leisure  to  the  higher  studies  for  which 
he  was  fitted.  Such  a  living  may  fairly  be  com- 
pared to  a  university  scholarship  in  our  day — as  in 
fact  the  majority  of  our  American  scholarships  will 
be  found  to  have  a  religious  origin. 

It  must  have  required  an  unusual  sense  of  the  fit- 
ness of  things  for  a  man  of  Erasmus'  time  to  decline 
so  easy  and  so  honourable  a  means  of  subsistence. 
What  his  own  real  views  on  the  subject  were  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  see  later  when  the  temptation 
comes  to  him.  Enough  to  say  here  that,  at  least 
so  far  as  the  cure  of  souls  was  concerned,  it  seemed 
to  him,  in  his  better  moments,  a  scandal  that  the 
man  who  did  the  work  of  a  "  living  "  should  not 
receive  at  least  a  large  part  of  its  emoluments. 
Doubtless,  also,  the  sense  of  confinement,  always 
an  unbearable  one  to  Erasmus,  had  its  part  in  mak- 
ing a  church  benefice  unacceptable  to  him.  Another 
consideration  no  doubt  had  its  weight.  The  medi- 
aeval scholar  had  served  the  cause  of  religion  by 
agreeing  in  every  detail  with  its  traditions  as  the 
organised  church  handed  them  to  him.  The  scholar 
of  the  Renaissance,  though  he  might  be  equally  de- 
voted to  the  religious  system,  thought  of  his  learn- 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  31 

ing  as  something  having  an  independent  right  to 
existence,  and  might  well  hesitate  to  commit  him- 
self to  such  obligations  toward  the  traditional  views 
of  religion  as  were  implied  in  the  holding  of  a  cleri- 
cal office. 

Distinctly  the  most  agreeable  form  of  support  for 
the  scholar  of  the  early  Renaissance  was  a  regular 
pension  from  some  rich  patron.  He  had  no  need 
to  feel  himself  humbled  by  this  relation,  for  he  could 
always  fall  back  on  the  pleasant  reflection  that  he 
was  giving  back  to  his  patron  in  honour  quite  as  much 
as  he  received  from  him  in  money.  In  fact,  this 
was  the  very  essence  of  such  patronage.  The  rela- 
tion was  quite  different  from  that  of  the  public 
official,  clerk,  secretary,  or  what  not,  hired  to  per- 
form a  definite  kind  of  service.  It  was  a  relation  of 
honour,  not  to  be  reduced  to  commercial  terms. 
The  money  given  was  not  paid  for  the  scholar's 
services;  it  was  given  to  secure  him  the  leisure 
needed  for  the  proper  pursuit  of  his  own  scholarly 
aims.  It  bound  him  only  to  diligence  in  pure 
scholarship,  not  to  a  servile  flattery  of  his  patron, 
nor  to  any  direct  furtherance  of  the  patron's  ends. 

Plainly  this  system  was  open  to  abuses ;  but  so  is 
every  relation  of  honour  between  men,  and  even  the 
more  exposed  to  abuse  in  proportion  as  it  calls 
upon  the  principle  of  honour  and  not  upon  that  of 
commercial  equivalents.  The  quid  pro  quo  is  the 
scholar's  devotion  to  the  highest  aims  of  scholarship, 
and  if  he  fulfils  his  part  to  the  best  of  his  ability  he 
may  hold  up  his  head  in  the  presence  of  any  man, 
even  in  an  age  of  exclusively  commercial  standards. 


32  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492 

All  these  forms  of  support  were  at  one  time  or 
another  employed  by  Erasmus.  He  seems  to  have 
disliked  teaching,  both  public  and  private,  though 
the  evidence  points  towards  his  success,  at  least  in 
the  latter  kind.  The  cure  of  souls  he  never  under- 
took, but  was  willing  to  accept  livings,  if  he  were 
permitted  to  resign  them  for  a  handsome  percentage 
as  pension.  Excepting  with  the  bishop  of  Cambrai 
he  never  stood  to  any  patron  in  the  relation  of 
secretary,  clerk,  librarian,  or  in  any  other  similar 
form  of  service.  His  choice  was  a  good  liberal  pen- 
sion, and  as  to  the  quid  pro  quo,  there  was  never  in 
his  case  any  room  for  doubt. 

Whatever  else  Erasmus  was,  he  certainly  was  not 
lazy.  The  impulse  to  produce  was  in  him  an  irre- 
sistible one.  All  he  asked  was  opportunity,  and  the 
several  patrons  who,  from  time  to  time,  contributed 
to  his  support  must  have  felt  that  on  his  side  the 
point  of  honour  was  fully  met.  One  other  consider- 
ation will  perhaps  help  us  to  understand  the  exact 
feeling  of  Erasmus  in  entering  upon  what  seems  to 
us,  perhaps,  a  condition  of  personal  dependence. 
How,  we  may  ask,  could  any  man  have  that  confid- 
ence in  his  own  talent  which  would  assure  him 
against  the  dread  that  after  all  he  might  prove  a 
bad  investment  ?  The  answer  is  twofold :  the  man 
must  have  a  profound  confidence  either  in  the 
greatness  of  the  cause  he  stands  for  or  in  his  own 
surpassing  merit.  In  Erasmus  both  these  elements 
of  assurance  were  united.  He  always  thought  and 
spoke  of  pure  scholarship,  when  applied  to  the 
advancement  of  a  pure  Christianity,  as  the  noblest 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  33 

occupation  of  man,  and  he  shared  in  a  high  degree 
that  exaggerated  sense  of  personal  importance  which 
is  the  especial  mark  of  the  Renaissance  scholar. 

The  acceptance  of  a  pension  from  a  private  person 
was,  then,  the  most  untrammelled  form  of  financial 
dependence  which  a  poor  scholar  could  assume,  and 
it  is  the  form  chosen  by  Erasmus  whenever  he  had 
an  opportunity  of  choice.  His  first  relation  to  the 
bishop  of  Cambrai  was,  indeed,  intended  to  be  one 
of  actual,  definite  service.  He  was  to  go  with  him 
to  Italy  as  his  Latin  secretary,  and  might  well  feel 
that  he  was  to  give  a  fair  equivalent  for  his  support. 
The  journey  to  Italy,  however,  was  indefinitely  post- 
poned. Erasmus  says  the  bishop  could  not  afford 
it.  Meanwhile  the  young  scholar  lived  at  the  epis- 
copal court  until,  as  the  Italian  plan  seemed  to  be 
abandoned,  the  bishop  gave  him  money  enough  to 
get  to  Paris.  He  promised  a  regular  pension,  but 
it  was  not  forthcoming:  "  such  is  the  way  of 
princes."  * 

As  to  further  detail  of  the  life  of  Erasmus  with 
the  bishop  we  are  quite  in  the  dark.  Even  how 
long  he  was  there  is  not  clear  and  is  cheerfully  dis- 
regarded by  most  recent  writers.  It  would  probably 
be  safe  to  conclude  with  Drummond  that  it  was  not 
more  than  about  two  years  and  that  Erasmus'  resi- 
dence at  Paris,  therefore,  began  about  1491  or  1492, 

'  It  was  at  the  same  time  that  he  received  from  the  bishop  of 
Utrecht  ordination  as  priest.  Strictly  speaking,  this  ordination  was 
uncanonical,  on  account  of  his  defect  of  birth,  but  we  have  no  reason 
to  think  that  it  caused  him  or  anyone  else  any  scruples  until  many 
years  afterward,  when  the  point  is  distinctly  covered  in  a  papal 
dispensation  of  1517. — W.  Vischer,  Erasmiana,  pp.  26,  27. 


34  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

when  he  was  about  twenty-five  years  of  age.  As  he 
had  up  to  this  time  consistently  complained  of  every 
situation  in  which  he  had  found  himself,  we  shall  be 
quite  prepared  to  find  him  making  the  worst  possible 
of  a  manner  of  life  which  at  the  best  cannot  have 
been  too  attractive  to  a  lover  of  ease  and  comfort. 

The  organisation  of  the  University  was  such  that 
the  instruction  was  largely  separate  from  the  detail 
of  discipline  and  maintenance  of  the  student.  Each 
student  lived  as  he  could,  sought  the  teaching  of 
such  masters  as  suited  his  immediate  purpose,  and 
presented  himself  for  academic  honours  whenever  he 
was  ready.  A  student  of  means  lodged  at  his  own 
cost  in  a  private  house  or  private  Hall,  and  lived 
subject  only  to  the  general  discipline  of  the  Uni- 
versity and  the  town.  For  poor  students  there  ex- 
isted, as  in  England,  "  colleges" — i.  e.,  primarily 
lodging-  and  boarding-houses  under  a  stricter  over- 
sight. These  colleges  were  not  primarily  intended 
to  provide  instruction,  a  function  which  was  only 
gradually  assumed  by  them  as  their  endowments 
grew  to  be  larger  than  were  needed  to  provide  the 
ordinary  necessities  of  living.  Their  teachers  were 
rather  tutors  or  "  coaches  "  than  men  of  independ- 
ent scholarship;  their  function  was  to  supplement 
by  repetition  and  personal  attention  the  public 
teaching  of  the  more  eminent  university  professors. 
/  The  College  Montaigu,  into  which  Erasmus  en- 
tered, was  a  foundation  of  some  antiquity,  but 
during  the  previous  generation  had  fallen  into  com- 
plete decay,  so  that  nothing  was  left  of  it  but  the 
buildings.     About  1480  it  had  taken  a  new  lease  of 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  35 

life  under  one  John  Standonch,'  who  devoted  him- 
self to  its  service.  As  master  of  the  college  he 
could  make  something  by  teaching,  and  gradually, 
through  his  own  activity  and  that  of  his  fellows, 
had  got  together  enough  so  that  he  could  give 
lodging  and  partial  board  to  a  certain  number  of 
poor  students.  By  the  year  1493  he  was  thus  par- 
tially maintaining  over  eighty.  The  rest  of  their 
support  they  got  as  they  could,  by  begging  or 
otherwise. 

Erasmus  was,  then,  a  charity  boarder  and  ought, 
in  all  reason,  to  have  been  grateful  for  even  this 
poor  opportunity  of  enjoying  the  privileges  toward 
which  he  had  for  years  been  looking  forward  as  the 
summit  of  his  hopes.  Yet  he  can  nowhere  mention 
these  Parisian  days  without  the  most  doleful  com- 
plaints of  his  sufferings  from  foul  air,  bad  food,  and 
severe  discipline.  The  most  famous  of  these  dia- 
tribes occurs  in  the  Colloquy  called  'Ix^uo</>ayta — "  The 
Eating  of  Fish. "  Erasmus'  theme  is  here  the  exces- 
sive devotion  to  formal  rules  and  observances  in 
religion  to  the  sacrifice  of  more  important  things. 
The  eating  of  fish  is  only  a  text  on  which  he  hangs 
extremely  bold  and  acute  criticism  of  would-be  re- 
ligious persons,  who  for  their  lives  would  not  violate 
the  rules  of  the  Church  against  the  eating  of  meat, 
but  were  ready  on  the  other  hand  to  run  into  any 


■  Car.  Jourdain,  Index  chronologicus  chartarum  Universitatis 
Parisiensis,  1862,  p.  301,  n.  I  cannot  quite  adopt  Mr.  Rashdall's  ren- 
dering that  Master  Standonch  "took  rich  boarders  and  made  them 
support  the  ' Fauperes.'"  H.  Kashdall,  The  Universities 0/ Europe 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  1895,  i.,  512,  n. 


36  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

excesses  of  fleshly  dissipation.  The  speakers  are  a 
butcher  and  a  salt-fishmonger.  After  they  have 
gone  on  matching  stories  for  a  long  time,  the  fish- 
monger suddenly  breaks  out : 

'  "  '  Thirty  years  ago  I  lived  at  Paris  in  a  college  which 
has  its  name  from  vinegar  {acetutn).'  [The  Latin  form 
of  Montaigu  was  Mons  acutus.'\  The  butcher  answers: 
'  Well,  that  is  a  name  of  wisdom !  What  are  you  giving 
us  ?  A  salt-fishmonger  in  such  a  sour  college  ?  No 
wonder  he  's  such  a  keen  one  at  quibbles  of  theology  ! 
For  there,  as  I  hear,  the  very  walls  have  theological 
minds.' 

"  Fishtn. — '  You  're  right,  but  all  I  got  there  was  a 
body  infected  with  the  worst  kind  of  humours  and  a 
plentiful  supply  of  lice.  But  let  me  go  on  as  I  began. 
The  college  was  at  that  time  governed  by  John  Stan- 
donch,  a  man  whose  disposition  {affectum)  you  would  not 
condemn,  but  in  whom  you  would  like  to  see  more  dis- 
crimination. For  you  couldn't  help  greatly  approving 
his  regard  for  the  poor,  mindful  as  he  was  of  his  own 
youth  passed  in  extreme  poverty.  If  he  had  so  far  re- 
lieved the  poverty  of  youths  that  they  might  go  on  with 
honest  study,  yet  not  so  far  that  abundance  would  have 
led  to  extravagance,  he  would  have  deserved  praise. 
But  he  went  into  the  thing  with  beds  so  hard,  food  so 
coarse  and  so  scanty,  vigils  and  work  so  severe  that 
within  a  year  the  first  trial  brought  many  youths  of  excel- 
lent parts  and  of  great  promise,  some  to  their  deaths, 
some  to  blindness,  some  to  madness  and  not  a  few  to 
leprosy.  Some  of  these  I  knew  myself,  and  surely  not 
one  escaped  danger.     Now  can't  anybody  see  that  that 

'  Colloquia  Fam.,  i.,  806. 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  37 

is  cruelty  to  one's  neighbour  ?  And  not  content  with 
this  he  put  on  (them)  hood  and  cloak  and  took  from 
them  all  animal  food — and  then  he  transferred  such 
nursery- gardens  as  this  into  far-distant  regions.  If  every 
one  should  indulge  his  impulses  {affectus)  as  far  as  he  did, 
the  result  would  be  that  the  like  of  these  people  would 
fill  up  the  whole  world.  From  such  beginnings  arose 
monasteries,  which  now  threaten  both  kings  and  pontiffs. 
It  is  a  pious  deed  to  boast  of  bringing  one's  neighbour  to 
piety,  but  to  seek  for  glory  by  one's  dress  or  one's  food 
is  the  part  of  a  Pharisee;  it  is  piety  to  relieve  the  want  of 
one's  neighbours,  and  to  see  to  it  that  they  do  not  abuse 
the  generosity  of  good  men  by  excess,  is  good  discipline. 
But  to  drive  your  brother  by  these  things  into  sickness, 
into  madness  and  death,  that  is  cruelty,  that  is  murder. 
The  intention  to  kill  is  perhaps  wanting,  but  the  murder 
is  there  all  the  same.  What  forgiveness  shall  these  men 
have  then  ?  The  same  as  a  physician,  who,  through 
notable  lack  of  skill,  kills  a  patient.  Does  anyone  say: 
— "  but  no  one  forces  them  into  this  mode  of  life;  they 
come  of  their  own  accord;  they  long  to  be  admitted  and 
are  free  to  leave  when  they  are  tired  of  it  "  ?  Ah!  An 
answer  worthy  of  a  Scythian.  They  do  ask  this,  as 
youths  who  know  what  is  good  for  them  better  than  a 
man  of  years,  full  of  learning  and  experience!  Thus 
might  one  excuse  himself  to  a  famished  wolf,  after  he 
had  drawn  him  into  a  trap  with  bait.  Can  one  who  has 
put  unwholesome  or  even  poisonous  food  before  a  fright- 
fully hungry  man  excuse  himself  by  saying: — "  Nobody 
compels  you  to  eat;  you  have  willingly  and  gladly  de- 
voured what  was  set  before  you  "  ?  Would  he  not  pro- 
perly reply : — ' '  You  have  given  me  not  food  but  poison  "  ? 
Necessity  is  a  mighty  weapon;  hunger  is  a  terrible  tor- 
ment.    So  let  them   do  away  with  that  high-sounding 


38  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

phrase: — "  the  choice  was  free,"  for  he  who  uses  such 
torments  is  really  using  force.  Nor  has  this  cruelty 
ruined  poor  men  alone;  it  has  carried  off  many  a  rich 
man's  son  and  corrupted  many  a  well-born  talent.'  " 

So  Erasmus  goes  on  to  tell  other  details  of  student- 
life  at  Montaigu.  In  the  depths  of  winter  a  bit  of 
bread  was  given  out  for  food  and  they  were  obliged 
to  draw  water  from  a  polluted  well.  Some  of  the 
sleeping-rooms  were  on  the  ground-floor  and  in  such 
close  neighbourhood  to  the  common  resort  that  any- 
one who  lived  there  was  sure  to  get  his  death  or  a 
dangerous  illness.  Frightful  beatings  were  inflicted 
even  on  the  innocent,  "  in  order,  as  they  say,  to  take 
the  ferocity  out  of  them, — for  so  they  call  a  noble 
spirit, — and  break  it  down  on  purpose  to  make  them 
fit  for  monasteries.  How  many  rotten  eggs  were 
devoured  there !  What  a  quantity  of  foul  wine  was 
drunk!  " 

And  then,  having  made  his  fishmonger  say  all 
the  vile  things  about  Montaigu  that  he  can  think  of, 
Erasmus,  true  to  his  nature,  begins  to  hedge.  Per- 
haps these  things  have  been  corrected  since,  but  this 
is  too  late  for  those  who  are  dead  or  are  carrying 
about  the  seeds  of  disease  in  their  bodies.  Nor  does 
he  say  all  this  from  any  ill-will  to  the  college,  but 
only  to  warn  against  the  corruption  of  youth  through 
the  cruelty  of  man  under  the  disguise  of  religion.  He 
protests  that  if  he  could  see  good  results  from  the 
monastic  life  he  would  urge  everyone  to  take  the  cowl. 
In  fact,  however,  he  seldom  goes  into  a  Carthusian 
house  without  finding  there  someone  who  is  either 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  39 

gone  silly  or  is  a  regular  madman.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  rules  for  the  College  Montaigu 
published  by  Master  Standonch  in  1501  were  suffi- 
ciently harsh.  They  were  so  made  in  order  to  check 
the  abuse  of  too  great  freedom  for  the  very  young 
boys  admitted  to  such  foundations.  In  confirma- 
tion of  Erasmus'  picture  of  the  horrors  of  Montaigu 
we  find  regularly  quoted  Rabelais'  famous  passage ' 
in  which  the  youth  Gargantua  on  his  return  from 
Paris  combs  cannon-balls  out  of  his  hair  and  thus 
gives  occasion  to  his  father  and  tutor  for  an  attack 
upon  this  same  "  college  of  vermin  "  as  the  haunt 
of  cruelty  and  wretchedness.  When  Rabelais  wrote 
this  passage  he  had  not  yet  been  at  Paris.  It  is 
practically  certain  that  he  was  acquainted  with  the 
writings  of  Erasmus,  and  the  conclusion  seems  ob- 
vious that  he  borrowed  his  illustration  directly  from 
the  If  thy  op  hag  ia. 

This  description  of  "  Vinegar  College  "  has  been 
almost  universally  taken  as  a  serious  account  of 
Erasmus'  own  experience  in  Paris,  and  probably  it 
has  its  foundation  of  truth.  The  commonest  laws 
of  sanitary  decency  are  a  thing  almost  of  our  own 
day,  and  not  much  more  can  be  said  of  the  principles 
of  proper  food  and  care  of  the  body.  No  one  could 
expect  much  from  a  charity-school  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  But  these  stories  must  be  considered  in 
tReir  context.  They  are  introduced,  not  as  actual 
autobiography,  but  as  illustrations  of  one  of  Eras- 


'  Gargantua,  {.,  37.  See  also  H.  Schonfeld,  "  Rabelais  and  Eras- 
mus," in  Publications  of  the  Modern  Language  Association  of  Amer- 
ica, viii,    I. 


40  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

mus'  favourite  themes,  the  evils  of  monasticism,  and 
especially  they  are  made  to  bear  on  an  idea  which 
seems  to  have  been  almost  an  id^e  fixe  with  him, — 
that  all  the  powers  of  religion  and  learning  were  in 
league  to  drive  young  men  into  monasteries.  As 
before  in  his  recollections  of  Deventer  and  Steyn, 
so  now  here  in  his  memories  of  the  College  Mon- 
taigu,  this  spectre  still,  after  thirty  years,  haunts  his 
imagination.  He  forgets  that  he  was  enjoying  the 
fruits  of  the  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  of  the  founders 
and  interprets  all  their  actions  by  this  same  govern- 
ing motive.  He  had  called  his  schools  "  seminaria  " 
for  monks;  now  he  calls  his  Paris  college  a  '*  plan- 
tarium  "  for  the  same  kind  of  a  crop. 

In  fact,  these  early  studies  at  the  University  were 
full  of  profit  to  Erasmus.  He  was  at  the  centre  of 
the  best  culture  of  the  earlier  time  and  the  reviving 
spirit  of  the  new  classic  learning  was  beginning  to 
make  itself  felt.  In  his  references  to  this  experience 
it  suited  his  purpose  and  his  disposition  always  to 
throw  contempt  upon  his  teachers  and  upon  all 
learning  except  that  which  seemed  to  him  to  reflect 
the  glory  of  antiquity.  Indeed,  if  he  had  been 
forced  to  content  himself  with  the  dry  quibbling  of 
the  "  Scotist  "  theologians  who  were  still  the  domin- 
ant party  at  Paris,  he  would  have  found  himself  in 
dreary  company  enough.  But  we  find  no  reason  to 
think  that  there  was  any  compulsion  upon  him  to 
take  any  teaching  he  did  not  like.  Greek  had 
already  begun  to  make  its  way  as  an  attainable 
subject  at  Paris,  and  Erasmus  was  beginning  to 
feel  the  charm  which  this,  the  choicest  vehicle  of 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  41 

human  expression,  was  to  exercise  upon  his  whole 
life. 

His  first  Paris  residence  was  interrupted  by  ill- 
ness, in  consequence  of  which  he  returned  for  a 
time  to  the  bishop  of  Cambrai.  The  bishop  seems 
to  have  been  willing  to  keep  him  indefinitely  at  his 
court,  but  not  to  have  provided  for  his  further 
maintenance  elsewhere.  With  restored  health  Eras- 
mus was  back  again  at  Paris  and  now,  for  the  first 
time,  on  a  really  independent  footing.  For  the 
moment  he  ceased  to  consider  the  question  of 
patronage  and  began  to  give  lessons  to  private 
pupils.  Beatus,  unquestionably  prompted  by  Eras- 
mus in  all  details,  says  that "  the  Englishmen  at  the 
university  could  find  no  one  among  the  professors 
of  liberal  study  in  the  whole  place  who  was  able  to 
teach  more  learnedly  or  accustomed  to  teach  more 
conscientiously."  And  then  he  goes  on  to  make  a 
comparison  between  this  youth  and  the  two  best- 
known  professors  of  literature  at  the  time  in  Paris. 
One  of  these,  Faustus  Andrelinus,  was  evidently  a 
type  of  the  gay,  reckless  spirits  who  found  in  classic 
study  an  enjoyment  purely  intellectual  and  who 
used  its  moral  standard  as  an  excuse  for  all  loose- 
ness of  life.  His  manner  of  teaching  was"  popular" 
to  the  point  of  flippancy,  designed  rather  to  catch 
the  applause  of  the  crowd  than  to  merit  the  approval 
of  the  learned.  It  is  to  Erasmus'  credit  that  he  did 
not  allow  his  classic  enthusiasm  to  carry  away  his 
judgment  of  this  person.  The  other  teacher,  Ga- 
guinus,  was  a  more  serious  scholar,  but  not  so  far 
advanced  and  not  yet  regularly  teaching  publicly. 


42  Desiderius  Erasmus  lmqz- 

So  it  appears  that,  in  spite  of  his  doleful  stories, 
our  scholar  had  as  usual  been  making  the  most  of 
his  time,  and  we  come  now  happily  to  a  point  where 
evident  facts  and  the  testimony  of  other  men  can 
be  made  use  of  to  show  his  growing  value  and 
power.  There  seems  little  reason  to  doubt  that  he 
was  now  a  distinctly  popular  figure  in  academic 
circles.  He  was  in  steady  demand  as  a  private 
tutor  for  young  men  who  could  afford  to  pay  well 
for  his  services.  Among  such  youths  Englishmen, 
then  as  ever  since,  were  naturally  most  prominent, 
and  it  is  through  this  relation  to  English  pupils  at 
Paris  that  the  way  was  opened  for  Erasmus  to  many 
of  the  most  interesting  and  important  connections 
of  his  later  life. 

During  this  second  Paris  residence,  Erasmus  evi- 
dently got  into  some  rather  serious  scrape,  of  which 
we  get  only  vague  suggestions  in  his  correspond- 
ence. What  it  was  and  precisely  the  nature  of  the 
charges  it  brought  upon  him  we  cannot  say.  It 
seems  to  have  had  some  connection  with  his  relation 
to  a  mysterious  personage,  who  has  been  supposed 
to  be  almost  every  possible  person  from  the  bishop 
of  Cambrai  down.  Froude,  in  his  hit-or-miss  fash- 
ion, suggests  that  this  person,  whom  Erasmus  al- 
ways refers  to  as  senex  tile,  was  the  aged  Marquis 
of  Veere  in  Holland,  son  of  a  bastard  of  Duke  Philip 
of  Burgundy.  Unfortunately  for  this  theory,  the 
Marquis  of  Veere  was  already  dead  and  is  of  interest 
to  Erasmus  only  on  account  of  his  charming  widow, 
who  at  about  this  time  begins  to  dawn  on  his  horizon 
as  a  possible  patroness.     Beatus  tells  us  with  a  word 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  43 

that  Erasmus  after  his  Montaigu  experience  went 
over  {emigravit)  to  a  certain  noble  Englishman  who 
had  with  him  two  noble  youths,  of  whom  Beatus 
thinks  Lord  Mountjoy  was  one.  This  Mountjoy  was 
certainly  a  pupil  and  afterward  a  faithful  friend  of 
Erasmus,  and  we  have  references  to  the  "  old  man  " 
in  letters  to  Mountjoy  which  show  plainly  that  the 
young  nobleman  was  a  confidant  of  the  writer  in  the 
Paris  unpleasantness,  whatever  that  may  have  been. 
The  same  is  also  true  of  the  other  English  youth 
whom  Erasmus  now  met  and  learned  to  love,  Thomas 
Grey,  son  of  the  Marquis  of  Dorset.  An  extract 
from  a  letter  to  him  will  give  us  an  indication  of 
how  our  scholar  had  got  on  in  the  art  of  vigorous 
expression.  The  letter'  is  dated  at  Paris,  1497  (?), 
and  was  evidently  written  soon  after  the  trouble  of 
which  the  old  man  is  the  alleged  cause.  It  begins 
with  extravagant  expressions  of  affection  for  Grey. 
Of  the  whole  race  of  men  none  is  dearer  to  me 
than  you. ' '  He  would  have  written  him  earlier,  but 
dreaded  to  open  up  again  the  wound  which  he  was 
just  hoping  would  begin  to  heal. 

"  Nothing  is  more  intolerable,"  he  goes  on,  "  than 
abuse  in  return  for  kindness.  Would  that  I  might  drink 
so  deep  of  the  waters  of  Lethe  that  that  old  man  and  his 
insults  might  wholly  flovy  forth  out  of  my  mind.  As  often 
as  I  think  of  him  I  not  only  fall  into  a  rage,  but  I  marvel 
that  so  much  poison,  so  much  envy,  treachery  and  faith- 
lessness could  dwell  in  a  human  breast.  So  help  me 
God!  when  I  think  of  the  scoundrelly  soul  of  that  man, 
the  Poets,  men  so  keen,  so  eloquent,  in  describing  human 

•  iii.»,  18.B. 


44  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

nature,  seem  to  me  either  never  to  have  seen  poison  of 
this  sort  or  to  have  been  unequal  to  its  description.  For 
what  panderer  so  false,  what  ruffian  so  boastful,  what  old 
man  so  ill-conditioned,  or  what  monster  so  envious,  so 
full  of  bitterness,  so  ungrateful,  have  they  ever  dared  to 
depict,  as  this  old  humbug,  who  even  sets  up  for  a  pietist 
and  invents  fine  names  for  his  very  vices  ?  You  bid  me 
not  to  be  distressed,  and  indeed,  my  dear  Thomas,  I  am 
bearing  the  thing  patiently  when  you  think  how  horrible 
it  is.  So  unexpected  misfortunes  can  but  grieve  one. 
How  ever  could  I,  in  return  for  my  frankness,  my  kind- 
nesses, my  faithfulness,  my  almost  brotherly  affection, 
expect  from  a  man  so  venerable  as  he  appeared,  so 
noble  as  he  boasted  himself  to  be,  so  pious  as  he  pre- 
tended, such  extraordinary  abuse  ?  I  supposed  it  to  be 
basest  ingratitude  not  to  return  favour  for  favour.  I 
had  read  that  there  was  a  kind  of  men  whom  it  was 
safer  to  offend  than  to  oblige  by  kindness.  I  did  not 
believe,  until  I  had  learned  it  by  experience,  that  it  was 
far  more  dangerous  to  do  good  to  evil  men  than  evil  to 
good  men.  For  when  the  ungrateful  rascal  found  that 
he  was  under  greater  obligations  to  me  than  he  could 
repay,  he  turned  his  attention  away  from  literature,  which 
he  had  been  wretchedly  tormenting  up  to  that  time,  and 
bent  all  his  energies  to  ruining  me  with  his  infamous 
tricks.  And  when  he  despaired  of  doing  this  by  his  ac- 
tions {laboribus)  he  sought  to  crush  me  with  his  tongue 
steeped  in  the  poison  of  hell,  and  he  did  it,  too,  as  far 
as  he  could.  That  I  am  alive  at  all,  that  I  have  my 
health,  I  ascribe  to  my  books,  which  have  taught  me  to 
give  way  to  no  storm  of  fate.  It  is  a  blow  to  a  man  thus 
born  to  crime  to  find  that  he  does  but  little  harm. 

"  But  not  satisfied  with  raging  against  me  with  such 
fury  when  I  was  present,  he  pursued  me  when  I  had  fled 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  45 

from  him  and,  out  of  hatred  to  me,  rages  against  you, 
the  dearest  part  of  my  soul — rages,  I  say,  with  that  most 
terrible  of  human  weapons,  with  slander.  O  poison  of 
snakes,  worse  than  any  aconite,  than  any  froth  from  the 
fangs  of  Cerberus!  That  a  monster  like  this  should  gaze 
upon  the  fair  light  of  the  sun,  should  breathe, — nay! 
poison  the  vital  air!  That  our  common  earth  should 
bear  such  a  disgrace !  The  imagination  of  the  Poets  was 
never  able  to  conjure  up  a  mischief  so  horrible,  so  pestilent, 
so  accursed  that  this  monster  would  not  easily  surpass  it. 
For  what  Cerberus,  what  Sphinx,  what  Chimaera,  what 
Tisiphone,  what  hobgoblin  can  rightly  be  compared  with 
this  evil  thing  which  Gothia  [?]  has  lately  spewed  out  upon 
us  ?  What  scorpion,  what  viper,  what  basilisk  has  its 
poison  handier  ?  Venomous  things  seldom  give  forth  their 
poison  except  when  irritated.  Lions  repay  kindness  with 
kindness;  dragons  grow  gentle  under  kind  treatment; 
but  this  old  man  is  made  mad  by  good-will.  There  is  a 
poisoned  soul  for  you! 

"  Now  that  you  may  see  how  solid  is  my  proof;  if 
one  marks  carefully  his  savage  face,  the  whole  habit 
of  his  body,  does  not  one  seem  to  see  as  it  were  the 
very  image  of  all  vices  ?  And  herein  is  the  wisdom 
of  Nature  to  be  praised,  that  she  has  pent  this  soul 
of  deformity  in  a  fitting  body.  Beneath  the  bristling 
forest  of  his  eyebrows  lurk  his  retreating  eyes  with 
their  savage  gaze.  A  brow  of  stone,  that  in  his  evil 
doing  no  blush  of  shame.may  ever  be  seen.  His  nostrils, 
filled  with  a  grove  of  bristles,  puff  out  a  polypus.  His 
cheeks  are  drooping,  his  lips  livid,  his  voice  belched  out 
rather  than  breathed  out — such  is  the  man's  impotence 
— you  would  think  him  barking  rather  than  speaking. 
His  twisted  neck,  his  crooked  legs — nothing  that  Nature 
has  not  branded  with  some  stigma.     So  we  brand  crimi- 


46  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

nals  and  malefactors;  so  we  hang  a  bell  upon  a  biting 
dog;  so  we  mark  a  vicious  ox  by  the  hay  bound  about 
his  horns. 

*'  To  share  my  learning  with  this  base  monster!  for  his 
sake  to  waste  so  much  time,, talent  and  energy!  If  this 
had  gone  for  naught,  I  should  be  less  wretched,  for  now 
I  see  that  I  have  sown  the  dragon's  teeth  and  they  are 
springing  up  to  my  destruction." 

This  is  about  one  half  of  the  letter.  It  is  evident 
that  Erasmus  was  in  good  training  for  the  choicest 
specimens  of  personal  abuse  which  he  was  later  to 
produce.  The  remainder  of  the  letter  is  filled  with 
flattery  of  young  Grey  laid  on  with  as  liberal  a  hand 
as  was  the  abuse  of  the  unfortunate  "  old  man." 
The  burden  of  this  part  of  the  letter  is  to  console 
Grey  for  being  still  under  the  power  of  his  tor- 
mentor, and  to  urge  him  to  new  effort  and  to  self- 
reliance  in  his  studies.  Out  of  the  confusion  of 
vague  references  and  later  surmises  as  to  who  this 
unpleasant  being  was,  one  can  get  a  certain  unity 
and  form  such  conjecture  as  one  will.  It  seems 
probable  that  he  was  some  Englishman  of  mature 
years  and  of  good  family  who  had  been  sent  over  to 
Paris  as  a  guardian  for  the  two  young  noblemen, 
Mountjoy  and  Grey;  that  he  had  engaged  Erasmus 
as  tutor,  to  live  at  their  lodgings  and  to  include 
himself  in  his  instruction ;  that  some  cause,  perhaps 
some  looseness  of  morals  on  Erasmus'  part,  had 
brought  them  to  a  quarrel,  in  consequence  of  which 
Erasmus  was  forced  to  throw  up  his  engagement. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  clear  that  no  father  would 
have  intrusted  his  son  to  such  a  monster  of  physical 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  47 

and  moral  deformity  as  is  here  described.  Just 
what  Erasmus  means  by  saying  that  "  Gothia  "  was 
responsible  for  him  I  cannot  make  out.  The  whole 
episode  is  interesting  only  as  throwing  light  on 
the  development  of  our  scholar  in  his  style  and  his 
character. 

That  Erasmus,  eager  and  diligent  student  as  he 
surely  was,  did  not  entirely  escape  the  allurements 
of  the '  Latin  Quarter  is  plain  from  later  references 
of  his  own.  Probably  he  is  referring  to  some  such 
experiences  in  a  letter '  written  about  this  time  to 
the  friend  whom  Mr.  Froude  jauntily  calls  William 
Gauden,  and  who  is  the  same  William  Hermann  of 
Gouda  to  whom  we  have  already  alluded.  This 
William  had  evidently  written  him  a  reproachful 
letter,  but  we  do  not  learn  clearly  the  grounds  of 
his  reproof.  Erasmus  ascribes  his  irritation  to  the 
tattling  of  some  enemy  and  beseeches  him  at  great 
length  to  trust  rather  his  own  personal  knowledge 
and  his  memory  of  their  lifelong  friendship  than 
any  such  calumny.  He  represents  himself  as 
plunged  in  the  depths  of  misery.  He  would  rather 
die  than  endure  longer  the  burden  of  such  a  life. 
It  is  not  life  at  all;  it  is  mere  existence.  Doubtless 
this  is  mostly  rhetoric,  but  the  true  state  of  the 
writer's  mind  seems  to  come  out  in  a  passage  in 
which  he  refers  to  certain  definite  persons  well 
known  to  the  receiver,  though  obscure  to  us.  The 
upshot  of  his  gloomy  reflections  is  : 

* '  This  is  the  kind  of  a  moral  atmosphere  {moribus)  we 
•iii.',  13. 


48  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

have  to  live  in ;  and  so  we  have  to  follow  that  saying  of 
Chilo:  '  So  love  as  if  thou  wert  one  day  to  hate,  and  so 
hate  as  if  thou  wert  one  day  to  love. '  ' ' 

This  letter  illustrates  well  traits  of  Erasmus  which 
were  to  become  very  marked  in  his  future  work. 
He  was  already  showing  that  joy  in  the  idea  of  be- 
ing persecuted  which  later  seems  to  have  reacted  on 
his  memory  of  his  earliest  years.  It  flattered  his 
vanity  to  think  that  men  cared  enough  about  him 
to  abuse  him,  and  such  abuse  gave  him  an  added 
claim  upon  the  devotion  of  his  friends.  His  nature 
demanded  affection  and  admiration,  and  he  was 
ready  to  repay  them  in  kind,  so  long  as  he  thereby 
incurred  no  lasting  or  burdensome  obligation. 

These  singular  contradictions  of  Erasmus*  nature 
are  most  clearly  brought  out  in  his  eaily  corre- 
spondence with  his  friend  Battus,  a  young  man 
whom  he  met  at  Cambrai,  and  who  became  tutor  to 
the  son  of  the  Marchioness  of  Veere.  In  connection 
with  Battus,  also,  we  learn  to  know  Erasmus  for  the 
first  time  as  a  suitor  for  patronage.  The  Battus 
letters,  some  score  in  number,  cover  the  period  just 
before  and  just  after  his  first  trip  to  England,  that 
is,  about  the  year  1500.  We  are  to  think  of  him  at 
this  time  as  firmly  fixed  in  his  determination  to  be 
a  scholar  and,  to  this  end,  to  get  to  Italy  as  soon 
as  ever  it  might  be  possible.  He  wanted  to  take 
his  doctor's  degree  there,  and  thought  of  Italy  as  a 
scholar's  paradise.  But  to  gain  this  great  privilege 
he  was  not  prepared  for  every  sacrifice.  One  is  apt 
to  think  of  Erasmus  as  a  wanderer,  and  with  good 


HOLBEIN'S  STUDIES  FOR  THE  HANDS  OF  ERASMUS. 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  49 

reason,  but  after  all  he  had  little  of  the  typical  Bo- 
hemian in  him.  He  was,  it  is  true,  a  poor  youth, 
but  his  poverty  was  always  a  comfortable  poverty. 
There  was  nothing,  apparently,  to  prevent  him 
from  taking  his  staff  in  his  hand  and  making  his 
way  on  foot,  if  need  were,  as  many  another  poor 
scholar  had  done,  to  the  goal  of  his  desires.  That 
was  Luther's  method  of  seeing  Italy,  under  a  very 
different  impulse.  Probably  nothing  would  have 
done  so  much  to  chase  away  the  megrims  that  were 
always  pestering  him.  He  would  have  had  less 
reason  to  complain  of  his  digestion  and  his  bad 
sleeping — but  if  he  could  not  have  complained  he 
would,  perhaps,  have  been  unhappier  still.  Mean- 
while, he  had  to  have  books,  he  must  eat  only  just 
such  food  as  seemed  to  suit  him,  he  kept  a  horse, 
and  could  not  think  of  a  journey^^without  at  least 
one  servant  and  two  horses.  Italy  seemed  in- 
definitely far  away.  Private  tutoring  was  a  slippery 
source  of  revenue ;  frequent  visitations  of  the  plague 
scattered  his  pupils  and  he  had  to  cast  about  him 
for  ways  and  means.  There  were  two  resources:  a 
place  with  an  income  and,  presumably,  with  duties 
attached  to  it,  or  a  patron.  For  obvious  reasons,  he 
preferred  the  latter. 

Bajtus)  his  dear  Battus,  was  pretty  comfortably 
fixed  at  the  castle  of.Tournehens  on  the  island  of 
Walcheren,  the  residence  of  the  Marchioness  of 
Veere.  He  was  a  good  fellow  and  might  be  counted 
on  to  do  his  friend  a  good  turn.  We  have  Erasmus, 
then,  in  the  Battus  letters  in  an  entirely  new  charac- 
ter,— as  the  flatterer  of  the  great  for  his  own  per- 


50  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

sonal  advantage.  The  earliest  indication  of  relations 
with  the  marchioness  is  in  a  Paris  letter '  to  Battus, 
which  begins : 

"I  can  quite  understand,  Battus,  best  of  men,  how 
surprised  you  are  that  I  don't  fly  to  you  at  once,  now  that 
our  affair  has  turned  out  so  much  better  than  either  of  us 
dared  to  hope.  But  when  you  know  my  reasons  you  will 
cease  to  wonder  and  will  see  that  I  have  consulted  your 
advantage  no  less  than  my  own.  I  can  hardly  tell  you 
how  delighted  I  was  at  your  letter.  Already  I  am  seeing 
visions  of  a  happy  life  with  you.  What  freedom  to 
chatter  away  together!  How  we  will  live  in  common 
with  our  Muses!  I  just  long  to  be  free  from  this  hateful 
slavery.  '  Why  then  hesitate  ? '  you  say.  You  will  see 
that  I  do  so  not  without  reason.  I  had  not  expected 
your  messenger  so  soon.  There  are  some  little  sums 
due  me  here,  and  you  know  very  little  is  a  great  thing 
for  me.  I  have  unfulfilled  obligations  with  certain  per- 
sons, which  I  could  not  leave  without  injury.  I  am  just 
beginning  a  month  with  the  count;  I  have  paid  my 
room-rent,"  etc. 

Then  follows  an  account  of  some  troubles  about 
certain  manuscripts  and  money  lost  by  unsafe  mes- 
sengers, and  then  he  returns  to  the  subject  of  the 
marchioness. 

"  I  don't  need  to  urge  you,  dear  Battus,  for  I  know 
your  loyalty  and  your  affection,  to  consider  at  once  my 
profit  and  my  dignity.  I  am  not  a  little  in  dread  of  a 
court  and  I  am  very  conscious  of  my  unlucky  star.  I 
rejoice  greatly  that  the  Lady  is  so  favourably  disposed 

'iii.',  27-F. 


I 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  51 

towards  me,  but  what  says  the  antistes  ?  what  hope  does 
he  offer  ?  Was  ever  anything  colder  ?  I  would  rather 
you  had  named  a  fixed  sum  than  talked  about  a  great 
one,     I  will  not  remind  you  of  Vergil's  line 

**  * .     .     .     varium  et  mutabile  semper ^ 
Fcemina     .     .     .' 

for  I  count  her  not  among  common  women,  but  among 
those  of  manly  quality  {vtragines).  Yet  how  many  are 
there  in  that  place  who  care  for  my  writings  ?  or  is  there 
anyone  who  does  not  hate  learning  altogether  ?  My  whole 
fortune  depends  upon  you.  But  if — which  Jove  forbid! 
— the  affair  should  fall  out  contrary  to  both  our  wishes, — 
you,  burdened  with  debt  as  you  are,  will  be  worse  off  in 
that  respect,  and  what  help,  pray,  can  you  be  to  me  ? 

"  I  will  not  admit  that  your  zeal  for  me  is  any  hotter 
than  mine  for  you;  but  I  am  sure  we  ought  to  take  the 
greatest  care  not  to  be  too  eager  in  this  matter.  I  write 
this  not  as  having  changed  my  opinion  or  as  being  fickle 
in  my  intentions,  but  to  rouse  your  watchfulness;  for  we 
are  both  in  the  same  position.  Now  if  I  had  n't  so  high 
an  opinion  of  your  loyalty,  your  prudence  and  your  care- 
fulness that,  when  I  have  turned  the  thing  over  to  you  I 
feel  that  I  can  sleep  on  both  ears,  I  might  be  alarmed 
at  this  beginning  of  the  business  as  at  a  very  unfavour- 
able omen.  They  have  sent  me  a  two-for-a-cent  hired 
nag  and  an  allowance  for  the  journey  that  is  just  about 
nothing  at  all.  Now,  my  dear  James,  if  the  beginning  is 
so  cold  will  the  end  be  likely  to  boil  ?  When  will  there 
be  a  more  honourable  or  more  fitting  chance  for  you  to 
ask  a  favour  in  my  name  than  now,  when  they  will  have 
to  get  me  away  from  this  city  and  from  such  favouring 
circumstances  ?  With  such  a  pittance  I  could  hardly 
come  on  foot ;  how  should  I  manage  it  on  horseback  and 


52  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

with  two  companions  ?  If  the  affair  is  to  be  paid  for  with 
my  Lady's  money,  as  I  suppose,  this  beginning  does  n't 
suit  me;  but  if  it  is  at  your  expense,  I  like  it  still  less, 
for  it  would  not  only  be  unfair,  but  it  would  have  to  be 
done  with  borrowed  money.  What  is  more  unlike  the 
man  you  have  always  taken  me  for,  than  to  come  flying 
at  the  first  nod  and  especially  under  such  conditions  ? 
Who  would  n't  think  me  either  a  greenhorn  or  a  knave 
or  at  any  rate  in  the  last  extremity  ?  Who  would  n't  de- 
spise me  ?  If  I  were  n't  so  awfully  fond  of  you,  Battus, 
my  dear  fellow,  so  that  to  live  with  you  would  repay  me 
for  any  inconvenience,  these  things  might  turn  me  from 
my  plans;  but  they  don't  move  me  in  the  least.  I  am 
only  warning  you  to  keep  up  my  dignity  with  all  dili- 
gence. V  Now  you  ask  my  opinion  and  here  it  is: — I  will 
arrange  my  affairs  here,  collect  my  writings  and  settle  up 
my  business.  Meanwhile  you  will  be  copying  out  what 
I  send  you.  Write  me,  by  the  lad  who  they  say  is  shortly 
coming  hither  to  study,  precisely  how  the  land  lies;  then, 
when  you  have  copied  the  Laurentius,  send  by  the  same 
lad  who  brings  it — I  mean  Adrian — an  allowance  for  the 
journey  and  some  very  definite  statement;  an  allowance, 
mind  you,  suitable  for  me.  I  can't  come  at  my  own  ex- 
pense, dead  broke  as  I  am,  and  it  is  not  right  that  I  should 
leave  my  present  fair  enough  position.  Besides  I  want 
you  to  send  me  a  better  horse,  if  you  can.  I  am  not 
asking  for  a  splendid  Bucephalus,  but  one  that  a  respect- 
able man  would  not  be  ashamed  to  ride; -and  you  under- 
stand that  I  need  two  horses,  for  I  am  determined  to 
bring  my  servant  and  I  intend  this  second  horse  for  him. 
You  will  easily  persuade  my  Lady  of  all  this.  You  have 
an  excellent  case  and  I  well  know  you  are  clever  enough 
to  make  a  good  case  out  of  the  very  worst.  If  she  refuses 
to  do  this — well  then,  I  pray  you,  how  will  she  ever  give 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  53 

a  pension  if  she  would  refuse  my  travelling  expenses  ? 
Now,  then,  you  understand  why  I  had  to  postpone  our 
writing,  as  I  said  at  the  beginning,  and  I  am  sure  you 
will  approve  it.  I  have  told  you  how  to  keep  up  my 
dignity  and  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  push  the  thing  as  fast 
as  you  can.  I  '11  not  be  napping  here;  do  you  keep  on 
the  watch  there." 

This  letter  is  one  of  the  most  important  revela- 
tions of  Erasmus'  methods  of  providing  for  himself. 
Battus,  his  friend,  had  apparently  held  out  to  him  a 
prospect  of  nothing  less  than  a  regular  settlement 
at  the  court  of  the  Marchioness  Anna.  Erasmus 
speaks  especially  of  a  settled  life  of  study,  with 
Battus  as  the  chief  attraction.  But  he  is  not  going 
to  give  himself  away  too  easily.  He  admits  that  he 
is  at  the  end  of  his  resources,  but  it  would  never  do 
to  let  my  Lady  know  this.  His  cue  is  to  raise  his 
own  value  in  her  eyes.  So  he  delays,  on  the  plea 
of  important  engagements ;  he  reminds  Battus  that 
his  stake  in  the  affair  is  the  same  as  his  own — though 
one  hardly  sees  why — and  he  urges  him  to  caution 
lest  he  seem  too  eager  in  his  suit.  He  flatters  him 
with  praise  of  his  eloquence  and  with  expressions  of 
entire  confidence.  It  isnot  a  guileless  youth  whom 
we  meet  here,  but  a  man  of  the  world,  conscious  of 
himself  to  the  point  of  morbidness,  and  yet  willing 
to  go  pretty  far  along  the  road  of  sycophancy  to  the 
great. 

The  journey  to  Tournehens  took  place  in  the 
winter  of  1497.     In  his  account  of  it  in  a  letter'  to 

'iii.'.  5. 


54*'  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

Mountjoy,  Erasmus  figures  himself  as  the  especial 
victim  of  hostile  gods.  He  might  have  been  Han- 
nibal crossing  the  Alps,  so  magnificent  is  his  lan- 
guage. Even  the  testimony  of  the  oldest  inhabitant 
is  not  omitted  in  proof  of  the  terrors  of  the  way.  It 
is  worth  noticing  that  the  gorgeous  spectacle  of  trees 
encrusted  with  ice,  the  deep-drifted  snow,  the  castle 
gleaming  in  a  complete  icy  shroud,  roused  in  Eras- 
mus no  sense  of  beauty  or  of  grandeur.  He  was 
occupied  solely  with  his  own  discomforts  and  de- 
scribes all  this  as  so  much  evidence  of  a  malignant 
fate. 

"  We  reached  the  princess  Anna  of  Veere  but  just 
alive.  What  shall  I  say  of  the  gentleness,  the  kindness, 
the  liberality  of  this  woman !  I  am  aware  that  the  ex- 
aggerations of  fine  writers  are  wont  to  be  suspected, 
especially  by  those  who  have  some  skill  at  such  things; 
but  I  beg  you  to  believe  that  I  exaggerate  nothing; — nay 
rather  that  the  truth  goes  beyond  my  skill.  Nature  never 
brought  forth  a  being  more  modest,  more  clever,  more 
spotless,  more  kindly.  To  put  it  all  in  one  word: — her 
kindness  to  me  was  as  far  beyond  my  merits  as  the  malice 
of  that  old  scamp  was  contrary  to  my  deserts.  She,  with- 
out any  effort  of  mine,  loaded  me  with  as  many  kind- 
nesses as  he,  after  my  endless  kindness  to  him,  heaped 
insults  upon  me.  And  Battus,  dear  fellow, — what  shall  I 
say  of  him,  the  simplest  and  most  affectionate  soul  in  the 
world !  Now  at  last  I  really  begin  to  hate  those  ingrates. 
To  think  that  I  should  have  been  the  slave  of  those  mon- 
sters so  long  !  " 

We  seem  to  have  here  a  reference  to  his  bite  7totr, 


I498J  Paris  and  Holland  55 

the  Paris  persecutor,  with  whom  Mountjoy  was  in 
some  way  associated. 

The  same  tone  of  extreme  laudation  is  kept  up  in 
a  short  and  hurried  letter '  sent  back  to  Battus  from 
Antwerp  on  his  way  home.  He  has  evidently  been 
well  treated,  but  is  not  yet  at  his  ease  about  future 
favours  from  the  lady.  **  I  will  fly  back,"  he  writes, 
"  as  soon  as  ever  I  can,  if  the  gods  permit."  The 
remaining  letters  of  this  correspondence  may  belong 
to  a  later  period,  but  will  serve  here  to  show  how 
Erasmus  continued  his  suit.  While  he  is  exhaust- 
ing the  language  of  flattery  about  his  fair  patron, 
he  makes  mysterious  allusions  to  possible  checks 
upon  her  liberality.  She  is  in  trouble ;  there  are 
demands  made  upon  her  by  unworthy  persons. 
Finally  it  appears  that  she  married  someone  quite 
below  her  station.  The  burden  of  Erasmus'  song 
is  that  Battus  ought  to  get  ahead  of  these  other 
claimants  on  the  lady's  bounty  and  make  sure  of 
his  case  before  it  is  too  late.  One  letter'  shows 
downright  ill-temper  towards  his  dear  friend,  which 
he  partly  excuses  on  the  ground  of  continued  ill- 
health.  Battus,  it  seems,  had  been  urging  him  to 
write  something,  probably  as  an  equivalent  for 
favours  to  come.      He  replies: 

"  I  hope  to  die  if  I  ever  in  my  life  so  hated  to  write 
anything  as  I  did  those  trifles,  nay,  those  Gnathonisms, 
which  I  have  written  for  my  Lady,  for  the  Provost  and 
for  the  Abbot.  I  know  you  will  say  this  is  my  ill-temper; 
but  you  won't  say  that,  Battus,  if  you  think  of  my  con- 

Mii.'.  6.  *iii.',46. 


56  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

dition  or  if  you  consider  how  hard  it  is  to  force  the  mind 
to  the  writing  of  a  great  work,  and  how  much  harder  yet, 
when  it  is  all  in  a  glow,  to  have  it  called  off  to  other 
and  trifling  things.  Because  you  have  n't  tried  this  your- 
self you  fancy  that  my  mind  is  always  in  perfect  order, 
always  on  the  alert,  as  yours  is  when  you  are  enjoying  the 
greatest  possible  leisure.  Don't  you  understand  that 
there  is  no  worse  burden  than  a  mind  wearied  by 
writing,  and  don't  you  think  I  am  doing  enough  here  to 
satisfy  those  whose  favours  I  enjoy  ?  You  are  asking 
me  for  bales  of  books,  but  you  don't  help  me  to  get  the 
leisure  which  the  writing  of  books  demands.  It  is  n't 
enough  for  you  if  I  shall  some  day  immortalise  our  friend- 
ship and  the  favour  of  my  Lady  by  my  books,  but  I  must 
be  writing  you  six  hundred  letters  every  day.  It  is  now 
a  year  since  you  promised  me  money  and  meanwhile  you 
send  me  nothing  but  hopes:  '  I  don't  despair,  I  will  push 
your  case  with  all  zeal.' — This  sort  of  thing  has  been 
crammed  into  my  ears  too  long;  it  makes  me  sick.  And 
finally  you  lament  the  hard  fortune  of  your  mistress. 
You  seem  to  me  to  be  ailing  with  another's  sickness.  She 
neglects  her  fortune;  you  feel  the  pain!  She  fools  and 
trifles  with  her  N.  and  you  snarl  out :  '  She  has  n't  any- 
thing to  give. '  Well !  the  only  thing  I  see  clearly  is  that 
if  she  gives  nothing  for  these  reasons  she  will  never  give 
anything,  for  reasons  of  this  sort  are  never  wanting  to 
the  great.  How  little  it  would  be,  with  such  vast  wealth, 
fairly  running  to  waste,  to  send  me  two  hundred  francs. 
She  has  plenty  to  keep  those  cowled  whoremongers,  those 
low-lived  wretches, — you  know  whom*  I  mean, — but  she 
has  nothing  to  provide  leisure  for  a  man  who  might  write 
books  worthy  to  live — if  I  may  brag  a  little  of  myself. 
She  gets  into  many  a  tight  place,  but  it 's  her  own  fault, 
if  she  prefers  to  keep  that  pretty  fellow  rather  than  a 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  57 

grave  and  serious  man,  as  becomes  her  age  and  sex.  If 
she  does  n't  change  her  mind  I  foresee  still  greater 
troubles; — and  yet  I  am  not  writing  in  anger  against  her, 
for  indeed  I  love  her  as  I  ought,  considering  what  she 
has  done  for  me.  But,  come  now,  how  can  it  hurt  her 
fortune  if  I  get  two  hundred  francs  ?  In  seven  hours 
she  will  never  know  it.  The  whole  business  comes  to 
this:  that  we  get  the  money  out  of  her,  if  not  in  cash, 
then  from  her  banker,  so  that  I  can  draw  it  here  at  Paris. 
You  have  been  writing  letters  and  letters  to  her  in  this 
affair,  asking,  hinting,  going  round  about;  but  what 
could  be  more  useless  ?  You  ought  to  have  watched 
your  chance,  gone  at  it  carefully  and  then  put  it  through 
boldly ;  now  the  same  thing  has  got  to  be  done,  but  too 
late.  I  hope  to  die,  but  I  believe  you  might  have  carried 
it  through  as  I  wish,  if  you  had  only  taken  hold  of  it  with 
more  spirit.  You  can  be  a  little  more  pushing  in  your 
friend's  cause  without  offending  my  modesty.  .  .  . 
Good-bye,  my  dear  Battus,  and  take  in  good  part  what 
I  have  written,  not  in  temper  nor  in  a  panic,  but  as  to  the 
man  who  is  the  very  dearest  of  all  men  to  me." 

Another  letter,'  written  from  Orleans  after  his  re- 
turn from  England,  begins  with  similar  references  to 
some  misunderstanding  and  goes  on  to  the  most 
barefaced  of  all  Erasmus'  begging  efforts.  Here 
occurs  his  first  appeal  for  a  church  living,  and  this 
plainly  not  as  a  makeshift,  but  as  the  beginning  of  a 
regular  speculation  in  livings : 

"  Then  persuade  her  to  look  out  for  some  church 
living  for  me  so  that  when  I  come  back  I  may  have 

» iii.',  86. 


58  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

a  quiet  place  to  devote  myself  to  my  books.  And  not 
this  only;  give  her  some  reason,  the  best  you  can  make 
up  for  yourself,  why  she  should  promise  me  the  first 
of  the  many  livings  she  has.  A  pretty  good  one  if 
not  the  best,  and  one  that  I  can  change  for  a  better 
whenever  it  turns  up.  Of  course  I  know  there  are 
many  seeking  for  livings,  but  say  that  I  am  a  man 
apart,  one  whom,  if  she  compare  him  with  all  others,  etc. , 
etc. — you  know  your  good  old  way  of  pouring  out  lies 
for  your  Erasmus.  See  to  it  that  your  Adolphus  writes 
the  same  things,  most  seductive  petitions  namely,  at  your 
dictation.  Keep  it  up  until  the  promise  of  a  hundred 
francs,  be  fulfilled  and  if  possible  let  it  be  handed  over  to 
your  Adolphus,  so  that  if, — which  Heaven  forbid! — any 
accident  should  take  away  the  mother,  I  may  get  it  from 
the  son.  Put  in  at  the  end  that  I  have  complained  in  my 
letters  that  I  am  suffering  as  Jerome  often  complains  he 
suffered,  from  loss  of  eyesight  and  that  I  look  forward  to 
beginning  to  study  as  Jerome  did  with  ears  and  tongue 
alone.  Persuade  her,  with  what  elegant  words  you  can, 
that  she  send  me  some  sapphire  or  other  gem  that  is  good 
for  strengthening  the  eyes.  I  would  have  written  her 
myself  what  gems  have  this  power,  only  I  have  n't  my 
Pliny  by  me;  do  you  find  out  for  yourself  from  your 
medical  man." 

We  have  but  one  letter  *  from  Erasmus  to  the  lady 
of  his  hopes.  It  was  written  after  his  return  from 
England  and  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  type 
of  literature  it  represents.  It  is  really  an  essay  in 
classical  composition,  with  its  object,  the  getting  of 
money,  partly  concealed  under  the  cover  of  literary 

'iii.',  83. 


1498]  Paris  and  Holland  59 

digression.  This  was  probably  the  kind  of  thing 
which  Erasmus  liked  to  call  nugce  and  which  he 
affected  to  consider  a  waste  of  time.  He  begins 
with  a  fantastic  allusion  to  three  other  Annas,  the 
sister  of  Dido,  the  mother  of  Samuel,  and  the  grand- 
mother of  Jesus.  These  have  all  been  sufficiently 
lauded  by  great  writers.  He  will  now  proceed  to 
add  her  as  a  worthy  fourth  to  the  list.  We  may 
spare  ourselves  his  fulsome  eulogies  of  the  woman 
whom  he  has  treated  in  his  letters  to  Battus  with 
something  pretty  close  to  contempt,  and  will  quote 
only  a  specimen.  He  has  shown  how  the  great  men 
of  antiquity  favoured  the  scholars  of  their  day : — 

"  But  I>  thou  muse  of  mine,  would  not  change  thee 
for  any  Maecenas  or  any  Caesar.  As  for  what  I  can  give 
in  return,  I  will  strive,  as  far  as  this  little  talent  and  this 
manly  strength  of  mine  may  go,  that  future  ages  shall 
know  my  Maecenas  and  shall  marvel  that  one  woman  at 
the  ends  of  the  earth  strove  to  revive  by  her  benevolence 
the  cause  of  letters  corrupted  by  the  ignorance  of  the 
unskilled,  cast  down  by  the  fault  of  princes,  neglected 
through  the  indolence  of  men ;  that  she  would  not  suffer 
the  labours  of  Erasmus,  deserted  by  splendid  promise- 
makers,  despoiled  by  a  tyrant,  buffeted  by  all  the  blows 
of  fortune,  to  fall  away  into  poverty.  Go  on  then,  as  thou 
hast  begun.  My  writings,  thy  foster-children,  stretch 
forth  suppliant  hands  to  thee  and  beseech  thee  by  the 
fortune  which  thou  spurnest  when  favourable  and  bearest 
bravely  when  hostile,  by  their  own  ever  hostile  fates, 
against  which  they  stand  by  thy  favour  alone,  and  by 
the  love  of  that  excellent  queen — I  mean  the  ancient 
Theology — whom  the  divine  Psalmist  (as  Jerome  inter- 


6o  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1492- 

prets)  says  stood  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  not  in  foul 
rags  as  she  is  now  seen  in  the  fooleries  of  the  sophists, 
but  in  golden  vestments,  girt  with  varied  colours,  to  whose 
recovery  from  the  mould  all  my  vigils  are  devoted," 

Then  he  becomes  more  explicit:  two  things  he 
must  have, — the  trig,  to  Italy  and  tnedoctor's  de- 
gree, both  of  them  really  follies ;  he  says : 

"  for  it  is  quite  true,  as  Horace  tells  us,  that  no  one 
changes  his  intellect  by  running  over  the  sea,  and  the 
shadow  of  a  big  word  will  not  make  one  a  hair's  breadth 
more  learned;  but  one  must  fit  one's  conduct  to  the 
times  as  they  are  and  nowadays,  I  will  not  say  the 
vulgar,  but  even  those  who  are  at  the  very  top  of  learn- 
ing, think  no  one  can  be  truly  a  learned  man  unless 
he  is  called  ' '  inagister  fwster, ' '  though  Christ  himself,  the 
prince  of  theologians,  forbids  it.  In  former  times  no 
one  was  called  '  'doctus  "  because  he  had  bought  the  title  of 
Doctor,  but  they  were  called  Doctors  who  by  putting 
forth  books  had  given  evident  witness  of  their  learning." 

A  very  apt  and  pretty  comment  on  the  doctor- 
fabrication  of  our  own  day  and  land. 

He  concludes  with  certain  definite  statements  as 
to  the  work  he  has  in  hand,  which  show  that  in 
spite  of  all  his  complaints  he  was  going  steadily  on 
with  his  studies  and  with  his  production  as  well. 
They  show  further  that  he  was  perfectly  sincere  in 
•his  declarations  that  he  needed  money  in  order  that 
he  might  do  a  kind  of  work  from  which  he  could 
hope  for  little  pecuniary  profit  excepting  in  the  form 
of  payment    for   dedications.      The  Veere  episode 


1498] 


Paris  and  Holland  6i 


throughout  is  full  of  mysteries.  We  have  no  means 
whatever  of  knowing  how  long  it  went  on,  how 
often,  or  for  how  long  periods,  Erasmus  was  a  guest 
at  Tournehens,  nor  how  much  help  he  actually  re- 
ceived from  his  noble  patroness.  The  only  date 
which  clearly  connects  this  correspondence  with 
other  events  is  a  reference  in  the  letter  to  the  Mar- 
chioness to  the  anniversary  of  his  departure  from 
England,  and  that  is,  on  other  accounts,  extremely 
uncertain.  We  may  safely  guess,  however,  that 
this  connection  covers  several  years  just  before  and 
just  after  1500.  Battus  died  iru.1502  and  by  that 
time  the  Lady  Anna  had  contracted  a  marriage 
' '  plusquam  servile. ' '  The  letter  '  which  tells  these 
facts  was  written  the  same  year  at  Louvain,  whither 
Erasmus  says  he  had  fled  from  the  plague.  He 
complains  that  he  has  little  chance  of  earning  any- 
thing there  and  yet  says  he  had  declined  an  offer  of 
a  place  to  teach  made  to  him  by  the  magistrates. 
"  I  am  wholly  devoted  to  the  study  of  Greek  and 
have  not  been  playing  with  my  work;  for  I  have 
got  along  so  well  that  I  can  write  fairly  in  Greek 
whatever  I  wish  to  say,  and  that  ex  tempore." 

Mii.*,  1837.  The  approximate  date  is  fixed  by  a  reference  to  the 
death  of  the  Bishop  of  BesaiKjon,  Francis  Busleiden,  on  the  twenty- 
third  of  August,  1502,  in  whom  Erasmus  says  he  had  the  highest 
hopes. 


CHAPTER   III 

FIRST  VISIT  TO   ENGLAND 
1 498- 1 500 

MR.  SEEBOHM,  in  his  amiable  study  of  the 
Oxford  Reformers,'  is  inclined  to  find  the 
motive  of  Erasmus'  first  visit  to  England  in  his  de- 
sire to  pursue  his  studies,  and  especially  that  of 
Greek,  under  circumstances  more  favourable  than  he 
could  find  elsewhere;  but  connecting  this  visit  with 
his  earlier  experiences  and  especially  recalling  the 
struggle  for  maintenance  in  which  he  was  just  then 
engaged,  we  can  hardly  fail  to  find  at  least  sugges- 
tions of  other  motives.  That  his  visit  did,  in  fact, 
powerfully  influence  his  study  and  his  thought 
there  can  be  little  doubt. 

The  immediate  occasion  of  the  journey,  which  we 
may  safely  place  in  the  summer  or  autumn  of  1498, 
__^was  an  invitation  of  young  Lord  Mountjoy.  Of  all 
"^the  English  youths  whom  Erasmus  had  known  in- 
timately at  Paris,  Mountjoy  was  the  favourite.  He 
seems  to  have  been  sincerely  attached  to  his  teacher 
and  to  have  done  his  part  in  making  easier  for  him 
the  rugged  path  of  pure  scholarship.     Writing  from 

'Third  ed.,  1887. 

6a 


1498-1500]     First  Visit  to  England  63 

England  to  Robert  Fisher,  another  of  these  young 
men,  who  was  then  in  Italy,  Erasmus  says  ' : 

"  You  would  have  seen  me  there,  too,  long  since  had 
not  Lord  Mountjoy,  even  as  I  was  girded  for  the  jour- 
ney, carried  me  off  to  his  own  England.  For  whither 
would  I  not  follow  a  youth  so  cultivated,  so  gentle,  so 
amiable  ?  I  would  follow  him,  so  help  me  God !  to  the 
infernal  regions." 

The  English  trip  must  be  regarded  in  a  way  as  a 
substitute  for  the  Italian.  He  was  "girded"  for 
Italy  in  every  way  but  one.  He  could  not  find  the 
money,  and  he  took  this  chance  of  living  on  that 
English  generosity  of  which  he  had  made  so  suc- 
cessful trial  at  Paris.  Nor  was  he  in  any  way  disap- 
pointed. During  the  year  and  a  half,  perhaps,  of 
his  first  visit  he  was  entertained  by  one  and  another 
of  the  patrons  of  English  learning,  or  by  some  of 
the  English  scholars  themselves-^— for  scholarship  in 
England  was  taking  on  that  character  which  it  has 
ever  since  maintained,  of  being  joined  with  wealth 
and  station.  This  was  a  type  of  scholarship  so  far 
unfamiliar  to  Erasmus  and  it  made  its  due  impres- 
sion upon  him.  He  liked  everything  in  England. 
He  writes  to  Fisher: 

' '  You  will  ask  me  how  I  like  your  England.  Well,  if 
you  ever  believed  me  in  anything,  my  dear  Robert,  I  pray 
you  believe  me  in  this,  that  nothing  has  ever  pleased  me 
so  much.  I  have  found  here  a  climate  pleasant  and 
healthful,  and  such  cultivation  and  learning,  not  of  the 

*  iii.',  12. 


64  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

hair-splitting  and  trivial  sort,  but  profound,  exact  and 
classic,  both  in  Latin  and  in  Greek,  that  now  I  feel  no 
great  longing  for  Italy,  except  for  what  is  to  be  seen 
there.  When  I  hear  my  friend  Colet  I  seem  to  be  listen- 
ing to  Plato's  self.  Who  does  not  marvel  at  the  complete 
mastery  of  the  sciences  in  Grocyn  ?  Was  ever  anything 
keener,  more  profound  or  more  acute  than  the  judgment 
of  Linacre  ?  Has  Nature  ever  made  a  more  gentle,  a 
sweeter  or  a  happier  disposition  than  Thomas  More's  ?  " 

There  is  a  touch  of  sincerity  about  these  expres- 
sions, in  spite  of  their  conventional  form,  which  is 
borne  out  by  the  whole  future  relation  of  Erasmus 
to  the  English  group  of  scholars.  For  the  first  time 
in  his  life  he  forgets  to  grumble  and  has  no  occasion 
to  beg. 

In  England,  too,  Erasmus  found  himself,  for  the 
first  time,  in  relations  with  men  who  he  had  to  con- 
fess were  his  superiors  in  many  ways.  We  know 
nothing  of  the  circumstances  of  Erasmus*  arrival, 
but  it  seems  that  Mountjoy  soon  sent  him  on  to 
Oxford  ai|d  that  he  was  received  there  in  a  college 
of  Augustinian  Canons  known  as  the  College  of  St. 
Mary.  So  far  as  any  place  could  be  called  his  Eng- 
lish headquarters,  this  was  it.  The  prior  of  the 
college,  Richard  Charnock,  was  far  from  being  the 
kind  of  person  Erasmus  became  so  fond  of  represent- 
ing as  the  natural  head  of  a  monastic  establishment. 
He  was  a  cultivated  gentleman  and  sound  scholar 
after  Erasmus'  own  heart  and  in  the  friendliest  re- 
lations with  the  most  "  advanced  "  of  the  early 
English  humanistic  scholars.  On  just  what  terms 
Erasmus  lived  at  St.  Mary's  is  not  quite  clear.      He 


THOMAS  MORE. 

FROM  THE  DRAWING  BY  HOLBEIN,  IN  WINDSOR  CASTLE. 


I500]  First  Visit  to  England  65 

refers  often  to  the  Prior's  "  hospitality,"  but  we 
find  him  asking  Mountjoy  to  send  him  "  his  money  " 
{pecunias  meas)  at  once  that  he  might  repay  Char- 
nock  his  many  obligations.  Erasmus  was  very 
careful  in  his  use  of  all  the  parts  of  speech  except 
adjectives,  and  this  phrase  seems  to  indicate  on  the 
one  hand  that  he  was  a  boarder  at  the  college,  and 
on  the  other  that  he  had  some  regular  understand- 
ing with  Mountjoy  as  to  a  supply  of  money. 

Through  prior  Charnock,  probably,  Erasmus  was 
introduced  to  the  leading  scholars  of  the  University. 
Among  these  by  far  the  most  interesting  to  him  was 
John  Colet,  a  young  man  of  just  his  own  age,  who 
was  living  at  Oxford  as  a  private  or  independent 
teacher.  He  was  a  man  of  admirable  character,  of 
rare  acuteness  of  mind,  already  well  out  of  the  fogs 
of  mediaeval  scholasticism  which  were  still  clinging 
around  Erasmus.  Colet  seems  at  once  to  have  im- 
pressed himself  upon  the  visitor  as  a  new  type.  He 
was,  first  of  all,  a  man  of  fine  culture,  the  son  of  a 
Lord  Mayor  of  London,  reared  in  ease  and  plenty 
and  given  from  the  outset  that  wider  outlook  into 
the  world  of  thought  which  Erasmus  was  just  be- 
ginning to  get  for  himself.  He  had  enjoyed  the 
great  advantage  of  the  Italian  journey  with  all  that 
it  implied  by  the  way.  He  was  a  theologian,  but  as 
far  as  possible  removed  from  the  quality  which  had 
made  the  very  name  of  theology  hateful  in  Erasm^us' 
ears.  At  Paris,  as  he  continually  complains,  theo- 
logy still  meant  the  futile  struggle  of  hair-splitting 
schools  of  a  pseudo-philosophy  to  explain  the  how 
and   the  why  of  Christian  truth.     For  the  truth 


66  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

itself  they  seemed  to  have  little  comprehension  and 
little  care.  New  light  was  coming  into  theology,  as 
into  all  science,  through  the  larger  and  freer  dealing 
with  ancient  learning ;  but  how  to  connect  this  learn- 
ing of  antiquity  with  the  present  problems  of  religion 
and  of  life — that  was  the  all-important  question  to 
every  serious  mind. 

That  the  very  clever  mind  of  Erasmus  was  already 
fixed  on  serious  things  there  can  be  no  doubt.  He 
was  thirty  years  old ;  he  had  largely  overcome  the 
mechanical  difficulties  of  the  scholar's  work.  He 
had  read  the  vast  mass  of  the  Latin  classic  authors 
with  great  diligence  and  with  profound  personal  in- 
terest. He  had  had  his  fling  as  well  as  his  trials  at 
Paris.  If  he  had  aimed  to  be  merely  a  classicist  he 
was  well  fitted  to  join  the  great  army  of  those  flip- 
pant scoffers  who  had  already  brought  discredit  upon 
learning  by  failing  to  give  it  a  serious  and  a  modern 
content.  Learning,  divorced  from  life,  was  already 
beginning  to  lose  its  hold  upon  many  circles  of 
European  interest.  Every  such  failure  was  only 
another  argument  given  to  the  surviving  mediaeval 
methods  why  men  should  not  desert  them  until 
something  better  had  been  found. 

And  if  Erasmus  was  fitted  by  his  training  to  im- 
itate the  gay  and  brilliant  shallowness  of  the  Italian 
Humanists,  he  was  perhaps  still  more  drawn  their 
way  by  the  natural  cast  of  his  mind.  He  liked 
bright  things  and  bright  people.  He  was  fond  of 
ease  and  comfort.  His  interests  were  largely  bounded 
by  his  own  personality.  He  loved  praise  and  could 
not  endure  reproach.     He  demanded  friendship,  but 


I500]  First  Visit  to  England  67 

would  not  be  bound  by  any  ties  that  threatened 
his  own  convenience.  His  vanity  called  for  continual 
food,  and  he  often  provided  it  by  protestations  of 
modesty  which  called  forth  devoted  expressions 
from  his  admirers.  The  impression  of  his  quality 
at  this  time  is  not  a  lovely  one,  and  yet  he  was 
plainly  more  attractive  in  person  than  he  is  to  us  in 
his  correspondence.  He  made  friends  and,  on  the 
whole,  considering  his  motto,  "  to  love  as  if  thou 
wert  some  day  to  hate  and  hate  as  if  thou  wert 
some  day  to  love,"  he  kept  them  remarkably  well. 
The  English  visit  was  a  critical  time  to  Erasmus. 
His  mood  in  the  months  just  before  had  been  one 
of  discouragement,  just  the  mood  which  might  well 
have  turned  a  man  of  his  tastes  and  apparent  char- 
acter into  a  life  of  brilliant  literary  flippancy.  A 
glimpse  into  his  own  reflections  on  this  point  is  given 
in  the  letter '  to  Mountjoy  above  quoted,  written 
from  Oxford : 

"  I  am  getting  on  here  splendidly  and  better  every  day. 
I  can't  tell  you  how  delighted  I  am  with  your  England, 
partly  through  custom  which  softens  all  hard  things, 
partly  through  the  kindness  of  Colet  and  Prior  Charnock; 
for  there  was  never  anything  more  gentle,  sweeter  or 
more  lovable  than  their  characters.  With  two  such 
friends  I  could  live  in  farthest  Scythia.  What  Horace 
wrote,  that  even  the  common  people  see  the  truth  some- 
times, experience  has  taught  me: — you  know  his  well- 
worn  saying  that  things  which  begin  the  worst  are  wont 
to  have  the  best  ending.  What  was  ever  more  inauspic- 
ious than  my  coming  here  ? — and  now  everything  goes 

'iii.',  41. 


68  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

better  from  day  to  day.  I  have  cast  away  all  that  de- 
pression from  which  you  used  to  see  me  sufifering.  For 
the  rest,  I  beseech  you,  my  pride,  as  formerly,  when  my 
courage  failed,  you  supported  me  with  your  own,  so  now, 
though  mine  is  not  lacking,  let  not  yours  desert  me." 

Erasmus  in  England  found  his  better  self  awak- 
ening to  renewed  courage  and  exertion.  Even  be- 
fore he  came  over,  he  had  begun  to  see  that  perhaps 
a  solution  of  his  life-problem  might  be  found  in  a 
deliberate  rejection  of  the  mediaeval  method  in 
theology  by  throwing  it  all  away  and  going  straight 
back,  first  to  the  original  documents  of  Christianity 
themselves,  and  then  to  the  early  commentators  on 
Christianity  who  had  expounded  these  documents 
under  the   direct   influence  of  the  classic  culture. 

;>  Jerome,  especially,  seemed  to  him  worthy  of  the 

most  careful  study  and  of  a  new  and  scientific 
edition.  This  was  the  "  great  work  "  to  which  he 
refers  in  his  correspondence  with  Battus  as  being 
interrupted  by  Battus's  trivial  demands  for  some 
show-pieces  to  please  their  patroness. 

Underneath  all  his  thought  there  lay  continually 
this  purpose  to  apply  his  learning  to  making  clearer 

^^^  the  ways  of  God  to  man.  The  Oxford  friends  were 
eminently  men  to  strengthen  his  intention,  and  we 
may  feel  sure  that  here  was  the  real  source  of  Eras- 
mus' higher  content  in  England.  Let  us  try  to 
make  acquaintance  with  them  through  Erasmus' 
own  words;  and  first  with  Colet,  beginning  at  the 
point  of  their  first  meeting.  In  a  long  letter  bearing 
date  1 5 19,  just  twenty  years  later,  and  written  under 
the  first  shock  of  Colet's  death,   Erasmus  gives  a 


x5oo]  First  Visit  to  England  69 

short  but  feeling  sketch  of  his  friend's  life.  This 
sketch  '  forms  the  basis  of  all  subsequent  treatment 
of  Colet. 

"  On  his  return  from  Italy  he  chose  to  leave  his  home 
and  go  to  Oxford,  and  there  publicly,  and  without  pay, 
he  expounded  all  the  epistles  of  Paul.  There  I  began 
his  acquaintance,  sent  thither  by  some  divine  leading. 
He  was  then  about  thirty  years  old,  two  or  three  months 
younger  than  I.  He  had  never  taken  nor  tried  for  a  de- 
gree in  theology  and  yet  there  was  no  doctor  in  the 
place,  either  of  theology  or  of  law,  and  no  abbot  or  per- 
son of  any  rank  whatever,  who  did  not  go  to  hear  him 
and  even  take  his  note-book  along, — a  credit  alike  to  the 
learning  of  Colet  and  to  the  interest  of  those  hearers, 
that  old  men  were  not  ashamed  to  learn  of  a  younger  one 
and  doctors  from  one  who  was  not  a  doctor.  The  doctor 
title  was  voluntarily  offered  him  afterward  and  he  ac- 
cepted it  rather  to  please  his  friends  than  because  he 
really  cared  for  it, 

"  From  this  sacred  task  he  was  called  to  London  by 
the  favour  of  King  Henry  VH.  and  made  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's,  president  of  his  congregation,  whose  writings  he 
so  dearly  loved.  This  is  the  highest  dignity  in  England, 
though  there  be  others  with  more  ample  revenue.  This 
man,  as  if  called  to  the  labour,  rather  than  to  the  dignity 
of  the  office,  restored  the  decayed  discipline  of  his  con- 
gregation and,  a  novelty  in  that  place,  undertook  to 
preach  on  every  holy  day  in  his  own  church,  besides  the 
extraordinary  sermons  which  he  delivered  in  the  royal 
chapel  and  in  various  other  places.  In  his  preaching  he 
did  not  take  his  subject  by  fragments  from  the  Gospels 
or  the  apostolic  letters,  but  he  proposed  some  one  topic 

'iii.',  451. 


76  Desiderius  Erasmus  [149S- 

and  carried  it  out  to  the  end  in  successive  discourses:  as 
for  example  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  the  Creed,  the  Lord's 
Prayer.  He  preached  to  crowded  audiences  in  which 
were  generally  to  be  found  the  foremost  men  of  the  city 
and  of  the  royal  court. 

"  The  Dean's  table,  which  had  formerly  under  the 
name  of  hospitality  degenerated  into  luxury,  he  brought 
within  frugal  limits." 

The  occasion  of  eating  was  improved  by  learned 
and  serious  conversation. 

"  He  delighted  especially  in  friendly  discussions,  which 
he  often  prolonged  until  late  into  the  night,  but  all  his 
discourse  was  of  learning  or  of  Christ.  He  often  asked 
me  to  walk  with  him  and  then  he  was  as  gay  as  anyone, 
but  ever  a  book  was  the  companion  of  our  walk  and  our 
discourse  was  still  of  Christ.  He  was  impatient  of  all 
uncleanness  and  could  not  bear  to  hear  language  ungram- 
matical  and  defiled  with  barbarisms.  All  his  household 
furniture,  his  dress,  his  books,  he  wished  to  have  per- 
fectly nice,  but  did  not  strive  for  show.  He  wore  only 
sad-coloured  garments,  whereas  priests  and  theologians 
there  are  generally  clad  in  purple.  His  outer  dress  was 
always  of  plain  woollen,  lined  with  fur  in  winter.  The 
whole  income  of  his  see  he  gave  over  to  his  agent  to  be 
spent  in  household  matters  and  gave  away  his  own  ample 
income  for  pious  purposes." 

Then  follows  an  account  of  the  endowment  by 
Colet  of  the  famous  St.  Paul's  school,  to  which  he 
gave  the  best  energies  of  his  later  years. 

"  While  everyone  approved  this  work,  many  wondered 


JOHN  COLET. 

FROM  THE  DRAWING  BY  HOLBEIN,  IN  WINDSOR  CASTLE. 


: 


i^oo]  First  Visit  to  England  71 

at  his  building  a  splendid  house  on  the  grounds  of  the 
Carthusian  monastery  near  the  king's  palace  at  Rich- 
mond. He  used  to  say  that  he  was  preparing  a  retreat 
for  his  old  age  when  he  should  be  unequal  to  his  work  or 
broken  by  disease.  It  was  his  intention  to  live  there 
the  philosopher's  life  with  two  or  three  choice  friends, 
among  whom  he  used  to  count  me,  but  his  death  came 
too  soon." 

The  careful  analysis  of  Colet's  character  which 
concludes  this  sketch  is  quite  different  from  Eras- 
mus' usual  undiscriminating  praise  of  what  suited 
himself.  He  presents  Colet  to  us  as  an  eminently 
human  personage,  inclined  by  nature  to  all  the  joys 
of  earthly  life,  and  yet  subduing  all  lower  tempta- 
tions by  the  force  of  his  unconquerable  will.  He 
was  a  man  of  strongly  marked  individual  opinions, 
yet  so  careful  of  the  feelings  of  others  that  he 
avoided  discussion  excepting  among  friends  or  when 
it  was  forced  upon  him.  At  such  times,  however, 
he  spoke  as  one  compelled  by  an  inner  impulse  of 
which  he  was  no  longer  master.  In  the  first  inter- 
view of  which  we  have  any  record,  at  a  dinner  at  St. 
Mary's,  in  Oxford,  a  discussion  arose  on  the  very 
speculative  question  of  the  meaning  of  the  story  of 
Cain's  sacrifice.  Erasmus  and  an  unknown  theo- 
_.logian  took  sides  against  Colet ' : 

"  '  Not  Hercules  himself  can  prevail  against  two  '  say 
the  Greeks,  but  he  alone  conquered  us  all.  He  seemed 
to  be  intoxicated  with  a  sacred  frenzy  and  to  utter  things 
more  lofty  and  more  noble  than  belong  to  men.     His 

»iii.',  42-F. 


72  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

voice  took  on  another  sound,  his  eyes  a  different  expres- 
sion, his  face  and  figure  were  changed;  he  seemed  to 
grow  larger,  and  at  times  to  be  inspired  with  a  some- 
thing divine." 

So  in  this  later,  more  careful  account  Erasmus 
refers  to  Colet's  view  of  Thomas  Aquinas.  He 
himself,  it  appears,  had  come  to  have  some  respect 
for  Aquinas  and  had  made  various  attempts  to  draw 
out  Colet  on  the  subject.  He  had  so  far  failed,  but 
one  day,  returning  again  to  the  charge,  he  found 
Colet's  eyes  fixed  upon  him, 

"as  if  watching  whether  I  were  in  jest  or  in  earnest. 
But  when  he  saw  that  I  was  speaking  from  my  heart, 
he  cried  out,  as  if  inspired  by  some  spirit: — '  Don't  speak 
to  me  of  the  man !  If  he  had  not  been  a  most  arrogant 
creature  he  would  not  have  defined  all  things  with  such 
boldness  and  with  such  haughtiness.  If  he  had  not  had 
something  of  the  spirit  of  this  world,  he  would  not  so 
have  corrupted  the  whole  teaching  of  Christ  with  his 
profane  philosophy.*  " 

The  result  was  that  Erasmus  looked  more  care- 
fully into  his  Aquinas  and  greatly  revised  his  judg- 
ment of  him. 

Remembering  that  this  sketch  of  Colet  was  writ- 
ten two  or  three  years  after  Luther  had  nailed  his 
Theses  on  the  church  door  at  Wittenberg,  we  may 
gain  from  it  a  good  insight  into  the  views  not  only 
of  Colet,  but  of  Erasmus  as  well,  upon  many  of  the 
doubtful  questions  of  the  early  Reformation  days. 
Nowhere,  perhaps,  in  Erasmus'  writings  do  we  find 
more  temperate  and  cautious  suggestions.     Already 


I500]  First  Visit  to  England  T^y 

we  may  discern  in  clear  outline  the  determining 
motives  of  his  position  in  the  great  struggle.  In 
his  pet  abhorrence,  the  monastic  system,  Colet  went 
with  him  to  the  point  of  free  criticism  of  faithless 
and  irreligious  monks,  but,  like  Erasmus  himself 
when  he  was,  so  to  speak,  in  the  witness-box,  he 
had  nothing  to  say  against  the  monastic  life  in  itself. 
He  had  little  to  do  with  monks  and  gave  them 
nothing  at  his  death,  but  he  professed  great  affec- 
tion for  the  life  of  seclusion  and  often  declared  that 
he  would  enter  it  himself 

"  if  he  could  find  anywhere  an  order  really  devoted  to 
apostolic  living.  When  I  was  setting  out  for  Italy,  he 
commissioned  me  to  inquire  on  tl^is  point,  saying  that 
he  had  heard  that  in  Italy  there  were  some  monks  really 
sensible  and  pious.  For  he  did  not  follow  the  vulgar 
opinion  which  calls  that  '  religion  '  which  is  sometimes 
only  weakness  of  intellect.  He  used  to  say  that  he  no- 
where found  greater  virtue  than  among  married  people, 
since  they  were  restrained  from  falling  into  many  vices 
by  their  natural  affections,  by  the  care  of  children  and  by 
their  household  duties. 

"  On  this  account  he  was  more  charitable  towards  the 
fleshly  sins  of  the  clergy.  He  used  to  say  that  he  hated 
pride  and  avarice  in  a  priest  more  than  if  he  kept  a  hun- 
dred concubines.  Not  indeed  that  he  thought  incon- 
tinence in  priest  or  monk  was  a  trifling  fault,  but  that  the 
other  vices  seemed  to  him  farther  removed  from  true 
piety.  There  was  no  kind  of  person  more  hateful  to  him 
than  those  bishops  who  acted  more  like  wolves  than  like 
shepherds,  commending  themselves  to  the  crowd  by  their 
sacred  offices,  their  ceremonies,  their  benedictions  and 


74  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

indulgences  when  really  they  were  heart  and  soul  de- 
voted to  this  world,  to  glory  and  to  greed. 

"  From  Dionysius  and  the  other  early  Fathers  he  had 
learned  certain  things  which  he  did  not  so  far  adopt  as 
ever  to  go  against  the  laws  of  the  church,  but  yet  far 
enough  to  make  him  less  opposed  to  those  who  did  not 
approve  the  worship  everywhere  in  the  churches  of  im- 
ages painted  or  in  wood,  stone,  bronze,  gold  and  silver. 
He  had  the  same  feeling  toward  those  who  doubted 
whether  a  priest  openly  and  plainly  wicked  could  pro- 
perly perform  the  sacraments; — not  by  any  means  that  he 
favoured  their  error!  but  in  wrath  against  those  who  by 
a  life  openly  and  every  way  corrupt  gave  ground  for  such 
suspicions.  The  numerous  colleges,  founded  in  England 
at  vast  expense,  he  used  to  say  only  stood  in  the  way  of 
good  learning  and  wete  nothing  but  so  many  enticements 
to  laziness.  Nor  did  he  have  a  very  high  opinion  of  the 
Universities  where  the  all-corrupting  ambition  and  greed 
of  the  professors  destroyed  the  integrity  of  all  science. 

"  While  he  strongly  approved  the  auricular  confession, 
saying  that  nothing  gave  him  such  comfort  and  good  feel- 
ing, yet  he  as  strongly  condemned  its  too  anxious  and 
frequent  repetition.  While  it  is  the  custom  in  England 
for  priests  to  celebrate  mass  almost  every  day,  he  was 
content  to  do  so  on  Sundays  and  holidays  and  very  rarely 
on  other  occasions.  .  .  .  Yet  he  by  no  means  con- 
demned the  practice  of  those  who  go  daily  to  the  Lord's 
table.  Although  he  was  himself  a  most  learned  man,  yet 
he  disapproved  of  that  painful  and  laborious  learning 
which,  gathered  from  a  knowledge  of  all  branches  and 
the  reading  of  all  authors,  is  as  it  were  lugged  in  by 
every  handle.  He  always  said  that  in  this  way  the  native 
soundness  and  simplicity  of  the  mind  were  worn  away 
and  men  were  made  less  sane  and  less  adapted  to  the  in- 


»5ooi  First  Visit  to  England  75 

nocence  and  to  the  pure  affection  of  Christianity.  He 
greatly  admired  the  apostolic  letters,  but  so  reverenced 
the  wonderful  majesty  of  Christ  that  compared  with  this 
the  writings  of  the  apostles  seemed  to  become  as  it  were 
defiled.  .  .  .  There  are  countless  things  accepted 
to-day  in  the  universities  from  which  he  greatly  differed 
and  which  he  used  to  discuss  at  times  with  his  intimate 
friends.  With  others,  however,  he  concealed  his  views 
for  fear  of  two  evils,  first,  that  he  would  make  the  matter 
worse,  and  second,  that  he  would  ruin  his  own  reputation. 
There  was  no  book  so  heretical  that  he  would  not  read  it 
carefully,  saying  that  he  often  got  more  profit  from  it  than 
from  the  books  of  those  who  make  such  fine  definitions 
and  often  come  to  worship  the  leaders  of  their  school 
and  sometimes  even  themselves." 

In  this  affectionate,  but  at  the  same  time  discrim- 
inating, review  of  Colet's  life  and  character  we  may 
easily  see  outlined  certain  ideals  of  Erasmus  himself. 
jpHe  admires  in  his  friend  a  quality  of  discretion, 
which,  under  some  circumstances,  might  come  pretty 
near  to  duplicity.  On  many  matters  he  had  two 
opinions,  one  for  himself  and  his  intimate  friends, 
and  another  for  the  public.  That  is  a  condition  of 
mind  that  will  do  very  well  so  long  as  the  great  issues 
of  a  dispute  are  not  brought  out  into  sharp  relief.  In 
the  times  that  try  men's  souls,  when  events  will  no 
longer  bear  nice  distinctions,  but  demand  that  men 
shall  stand  up  and  be  counted — yes  or  no — on  the 
question  of  the  hour,  then  this  quality  of  discretion 
may  be  the  ruin  of  a  man.  It  was  toward  precisely 
such  a  crisis  that  the  affairs  of  the  Christian  Church 
were  rapidly  tending  when  Erasmus  learned  to  know 


76  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

John  Colet  in  the  delightful  intercourse  of  the  college 
at  Oxford.  Colet  had  the  good  fortune  to  die  (in 
1 5 19)  before  the  supreme  test  came  to  him.  Eras- 
mus was  to  spend  the  best  energy  of  his  declining 
years  in  the  struggle  to  live  up  to  the  difficult  stand- 
ard of  having  one  opinion  for  himself  and  another 
for  the  world. 

In  the  several  subjects  touched  upon  in  the  review 
of  Colet's  opinions  we  hear  plainly  the  echoes  of  dis- 
cussions, growing  ever  more  intense,  upon  the  sec- 
ondary issues  of  the  Reformation.  Colet  approved 
of  monks,  of  secret  confession,  of  an  elaborate  cere- 
monial, of  a  priesthood  resting  upon  divine  conse- 
cration, and  he  would  not  for  the  world  question  the 
validity  of  recognised  church  law.  Yet  he  was 
ready  to  deal  fearless  blows  at  faithless  monks,  at  a 
superstitious  repetition  of  confession,  an  overdoing 
of  the  ceremonies  of  worship,  and  the  worldliness  of 
the  parish  clergy.  He  approved  of  all  learning,  but 
he  condemned  the  application  of  learning  to  a  fruit- 
less definition-making.    ^ 

The  first  letter  we  have  from  Colet  to  Erasmus  is 
an  address  of  welcome  to  England,  a  graceful  little 
note,  as  full  of  flattery  as  any  of  Erasmus'  own  and 
of  interest  to  us  chiefly  as  showing  that  the  visitor 
had  not  come  to  England  unknown.  He  had,  it  is 
true,  written  nothing  of  consequence,  but  Colet  had 
seen  some  little  things  of  his  at  Paris,  and  Erasmus' 
acquaintance  there  with  young  Englishmen  of  high 
social  rank  could  hardly  fail  to  have  carried  at  least 
his  name  across  the  Channel.  The  same  impression 
of  a  reputation  already  grounded  is  embodied  in  the 


I500]  First  Visit  to  England  •  ']^ 

well-known  story  of  Erasmus'  first  meeting  with 
another  Englishman,  with  whom  his  relations,  at 
least  by  correspondence,  were  to  be  still  more  intim- 
ate,— Thomas  More.  The  incident  is  told  in  the 
life  of  More  by  his  great-grandson  as  follows  ' : 

"  it  is  reported  how  that  he,  who  conducted  him  in  his 
passage,  procured  that  Sir  Thomas  More  and  he  should 
first  meet  together  in  London  at  the  Lord  Mayor's  table, 
neither  of  them  knowing  each  other.  And  in  the  dinner- 
time, they  chanced  to  fall  into  argument,  Erasmus  still 
endeavouring  to  defend  the  worser  part;  but  he  was  so 
sharply  set  upon  and  opposed  by  Sir  Thomas  More,  that 
perceiving  that  he  was  now  to  argue  with  a  readier  wit 
than  ever  he  had  before  met  withal,  he  broke  forth  into 
these  words,  not  without  some  choler: — '  Aut  tu  es  Morus 
aut  nullus.'  Whereto  Sir  Thomas  readily  replied,  'Aut 
tu  es  Erasmus  aut  dtabolus, '  because  at  that  time  he  was 
strangely  disguised,  and  had  sought  to  defend  impious 
positions.     .     .     ." 

This  story  plainly  implies  a  considerable  degree  of 
reputation  for  both  persons  concerned,  but  as  More 
was  at  most  twenty  years  old  and  known  only  as  a 
very  bright  young  student  at  the  time  of  Erasmus' 
arrival,  we  are  compelled  either  to  give  up  the  story 
or  to  place  it  some  years  later  and  suppose  that  Eras- 
mus did  not  meet  More  at  all  during  his  first  visit. 
This  latter  supposition,  however,  is  quite  impossible, 
since  Erasmus  speaks  plainly  of  More  at  this  time  as 
among  his  most  valued  friends.     The  author  indeed 


'  TAe  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  by  his  great-grandson,  Cresacre 
More,  1828,  p.  93.     This  life  is  largely  made  up  from  earlier  sources. 


78  .    Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

prefaces  the  anecdote  with  the  statement  that  the  two 
scholars  had  long  known  and  loved  each  other  and 
that  their  affection  "  increased  so  much  that  he 
[Erasmus]  took  a  journey  of  purpose  into  England 
to  see  and  enjoy  his  personal  acquaintance  and  more 
entire  familiarity," — most  of  which  lacks  support  in 
known  facts.'  We  can  only  accept  so  much  of  it  as 
implies  previous  acquaintance  by  correspondence, 
and  that  may  well  have  taken  place  while  Erasmus 
was  at  Oxford  and  More  in  London  working  with  as 
much  zeal  as  he  could  command  at  his  preparation 
for  the  bar.  If  we  strip  off  the  decorations  and  sup- 
pose the  meeting  to  have  occurred  during  some  visit 
of  Erasmus  in  London  from  Oxford,  this  very  pretty 
story  is  not  altogether  improbable.  At  all  events  it 
strikes  the  key-note  of  a  friendship  which  was  to  last 
as  long  as  life.  The  disparity  in  age  (eleven  years) 
was  more  than  made  up  by  the  great  activity  and 
originality  of  More's  mind  and  the  singular  charm 
of  his  engaging  personality.  During  this  first  visit 
to  England  we  have  no  specific  record  of  Erasmus' 
relations  with  More,  except  this  one  anecdote  of  the 
dinner  and  another  of  a  visit  paid  by  the  two  friends 
to  the  children  of  King  Henry  VIL  at  the  royal 
villa  of  Eltham,  near  Greenwich.     Erasmus'  account 


'  The  earliest  known  letter  of  Erasmus  to  More  (iii.',  55),  a  mere 
note,  bears  date  Oxford,  Oct.  28,  1499.  It  refers  to  former  corre- 
spondence, and  Mr.  Seebohm,  anxious  to  save  the  anecdote  of  the 
dinner,  is  inclined  to  imagine  an  even  earlier  date  and,  of  course,  a 
place  other  than  Oxford.  My  impression  is  that  the  date  is  correct, 
that  Erasmus  heard  of  More  first  at  Oxford,  then  began  to  correspond 
with  him,  and  out  of  this  correspondence  saved  only  the  little  note 
in  question. 


HENRY  VIII.  AND  HENRY  VII. 

FRAGMENT  OF  A  CARTOON  BY  HOLBEIN,   IN  POSSESSION  OF  THE 
OUKE  OF  DEVONSHIRE. 


I500]  First  Visit  to  England  79 

of  this  visit,  given  many  years  afterward,'  is  an  ex- 
planation of  how  he  came  to  write  an  ode  to  the 
young  prince.  He  was  dragged  into  it,  he  says,  by 
Thomas  More,  who  came  to  him  while  he  was  staying 
at  Lord  Mountjoy's  in  Greenwich  and  invited  him 
to  take  a  walk  for  pleasure  into  the  neighbouring 
village. 

"  There  all  the  royal  children  were  being  educated, 
with  the  exception  of  Arthur  the  eldest.  ...  In  the 
centre  stood  Henry,  a  boy  of  nine,  but  already  with  a 
certain  regal  bearing,  that  is  a  loftiness  of  mind  joined 
with  a  singular  courtesy  of  demeanour.  At  his  right  was 
Margaret,  then  about  eleven,  who  afterward  married 
James,  king  of  Scotland.  At  his  left  Mary,  a  child  of 
four,  was  playing,  and  Edmund,  a  babe,  was  carried  in  his 
nurse's  arms.  More  and  his  friend  Arnold,  having  paid 
their  respects  to  the  lad  Henry,  under  whose  reign  Brit- 
ain now  rejoices,  offered  him  some  writing — I  know  not 
what.  I,  expecting  nothing  of  this  sort  and  having 
nothing  to  offer,  promised  that  I  would  prove  my  devo- 
tion to  him  in  some  way  and  at  some  time  or  other. 
Meanwhile  I  was  vexed  with  More,  because  he  had  given 
me  no  warning  and  especially  because  the  youth  sent  me 
a  note  at  dinner,  challenging  my  pen.  I  went  home,  and 
though  the  muses,  from  whom  I  had  long  been  divorced, 
were  hostile  to  me,  I  produced  an  ode  in  three  days. 
Thus  I  avenged  the  affront  and  patched  up  my  chagrin. 
It  was  a  task  of  only  three  days  and  yet  a  task,  for  it  was 
several  years  since  I  had  read  or  written  any  poetry." 

This  rather  silly  tale  is  of  interest  only  as  giving 


'  In   Catalogus  omtiium  Erasmi    Rot.   lucubrationum  ipso  autore. 
Basil,  1524,  i.,  ad  init. 


8o  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

the  first  hint  of  any  connection  of  Erasmus  with  the 
English  royal  family,  a  connection  not  wholly  with- 
out influence  on  his  future.  If  More  was  playing  a 
joke  on  his  friend,  as  has  been  generally  assumed,  it 
was  certainly  a  very  poor  one.  Other  indications 
of  Erasmus'  occupations  in  England  are  found  in  a 
famous  letter  to  his  former  teacher  in  Paris,  Faustus 
Andrelinus.  It  is  a  merry  letter  to  a  merry  fellow 
and  must  not  be  taken  too  seriously.' 

"  I,  too,  in  England  have  gone  ahead  not  a  little. 
That  Erasmus  whom  you  used  to  know  is  almost  a  good 
hunter,  a  horseman  not  the  worst,  and  no  slouch  of  a 
courtier;  he  knows  how  to  salute  more  gracefully  and 
smile  more  sweetly  and  all  this  with  Minerva  against 
him.  How  are  my  affairs  ?  Well  enough.  If  you  are 
a  wise  man  you  will  fly  over  here  too.  Why  should  a  man 
with  a  nose  like  yours  grow  old  in  that  Gallic  dung-heap  ? 
But  then  your  gout — bad  luck  to  it,  saving  your  presence! 
— keeps  you  away.  And  yet  if  you  knew  the  delights  of 
Britain,  Faustus,  you  would  hurry  over  here  with  winged 
feet,  and  if  your  gout  would  n't  let  you,  you  *d  pray  to 
be  turned  into  a  Daedalus.  Why,  just  to  mention  one 
thing  out  of  many:  the  girls  here  have  divine  faces; 
they  are  gentle  and  easy-mannered.  You  'd  like  them 
better  than  your  Muses.  Besides,  there  is  a  fashion  here 
which  can't  be  praised  enough.  Wherever  you  go 
everyone  kisses  you,  and  when  you  leave  you  are  dis- 
missed with  kisses;  you  come  back,  the  sweets  are  re- 
turned. Someone  comes  to  see  you — your  health  in 
kisses!  he  says  good-bye — kisses  again!  You  meet  a 
person  anywhere, — kisses   galore! — so  wherever  you  go 

'  iii.',  56. 


i5oo]  First  Visit  to  England  8i 

everything  is  filled  with  these  sweets.  If  you,  Faustus, 
should  just  once  taste  how  delicious,  how  fragrant  they 
are,  you  would  long  to  travel  in  England,  not  like  Solon, 
for  ten  years  only,  but  to  the  end  of  your  days.  The 
rest  we  will  laugh  over  together,  for  I  hope  to  see  you 
very  soon." 

Two  other  Englishmen,  both  his  seniors  by  some 
years,  became  friends  of  Erasmus  during  this  first 
visit, — William  Grocyn  and  Thomas  Linacre.  Grocyn 
was  primarily  a  scholar  and  teacher,  ver^if^t^  pgpf^n'ally. 
in  Greek.  Linacre  was  a  physician  of  the  highest 
repute  in  his  day,  and  identified  with  the  whole 
future  of  medical  science  in  England  through  his 
foundation  of  the  London  College  of  Physicians. 
Both  had  studied  in  Italy  and  there  had  put  them- 
selves under  the  influence  of  the  leading  personages 
in  the  later  humanistic  generation.  Both  had  be- 
come skilled  in  Greek  learning,  and  were  doing  their 
parts,  each  in  his  own  way,  to  further  the  advance- 
ment of  Greek  study  in  England.  Grocyn  was  pro- 
bably teaching  Greek  at  Oxford  when  Erasmus  came 
thither,  and  so  far  as  he  ever  acknowledged  obliga- 
tions to  any  teacher,  the  younger  man  admits  the 
great  profit  he  derived  from  this  riper  talent.  In 
regard  to  Linacre  he  notes  especially  a  severe  and 
painful  accuracy  which  was,  probably,  the  reason 
why  he  left  so  little  behind  to  attest  his  scholarship. 
He  could  not  satisfy  his  own  exacting  standards. 
With  both  these  men  Erasmus  seems  to  have  lived 
on  terms  of  affectionate  intimacy.  There  are  indic- 
ations that  they  were  at  times  rather  tired  of  his 
persistent  begging,  but  this  did  not  interfere  with 


82  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

their  friendly  interest,  which  ended  only  with  their 
lives. 

Delighted  as  he  plainly  was  with  everything  and 
everybody  in  England,  better  treated  than  he  had 
ever  been  in  his  life,  why  did  not  Erasmus  take  his 
own  advice  and  settle  down  there  in  some  regular 
occupation  ?  So  cosmopolitan  a  genius  as  his  could 
hardly  have  dreaded  a  change  of  residence;  the 
scholar's  home  was  wherever  the  sun  shone,  and  cer- 
tainly never  was  man  more  free  to  follow  the  bent  of 
his  own  wishes  than  was  Erasmus.  That  the  idea 
was  not  a  strange  one  to  him  is  clear  from  many  in- 
dications. Especially  was  it  forced  upon  him  by  a 
suggestion  from  Colet  that  he  might  stay  on  at  Ox- 
ford and  join  him  in  what  seemed  then  likely  to  be 
his  life-work  of  expounding  the  fundamental  docu- 
ments of  Christianity  upon  the '  *  new"  basis  of  science 
and  com'mon  sense.  What  Colet's  arguments  were 
on  this  point  we  can  only  guess  from  a  reply  of 
Erasmus,  but  they  seem  to  have  been  such  as  would 
come  naturally  from  one  scholar  to  another  in  whom 
he  thought  he  recognised  a  spirit  kindred  to  his 
own.  Colet  lived  in  that  new  world  of  thought 
which  was  the  old,  and  saw  before  him  the  mission 
of  clearing  away  the  mediaeval  rubbish  that  had 
piled  up  in  the  long  interval  between  the  really  old 
theology  of  the  Greek  Fathers  and  the  new  thought 
of  his  own  times.  And  here  he  seemed  to  have 
found  the  man  of  all  others  best  fitted  to  help  him 
— young,  learned  in  the  language  and  filled  with  the 
spirit  of  the  ancients,  free  from  all  ties  of  family  or 
home  and,  apparently,  deeply  serious  in  his  interest 


I500]  First  Visit  to  England  83 

in  religious  things.  Colet  had  had  a  test  of  his 
quality  in  several  active  discussions  on  points  of 
theology,  which  had  brought  out  at  once  his  learn- 
ing and  his  desire  for  truth  even  at  the  sacrifice  of 
his  own  less  well-considered  opinions.  Erasmus  had 
shown  a  docility  in  revising  his  judgments  in  very 
marked  contrast  to  his  firmness  when  dealing  with 
other  opponents.  The  difference  was,  that  in  facing 
Colet  he  found  an  opponent  who  was  using  his  own 
weapons  with  equal  skill  and  even  greater  courage. 
In  the  letter  of  Erasmus  declining  to  remain  at  Ox- 
ford we  hear  nothing  of  the  question  of  ways  and 
means.  It  is  impossible  that  it  should  not  have 
been  in  his  mind,  but  there  is  every  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  it  did  not  influence  his  decision.  The 
only  trustworthy  patron  he  had  yet  found  was  an 
Englishman ;  there  was  a  chance  of  a  university  ap- 
pointment, and,  failing  this,  the  prospect  of  private 
pupils  was  better  in  England  than  anywhere  else. 
We  are  told  ad  nauseam  of  a  considerable  money 
loss  which  he  suffered  on  leaving  England.  So  that 
we  are  sure  almost  beyond  a  doubt  that  his  reasons 
for  declining  what  must  have  been  a  very  tempting 
proposition  were  somehow  connected  with  his  larger 
scholarly  ambitions.  '  Of  course  he  makes  as  much 
as  possible  of  his  own  modesty :  Colet  "  is  (to  quote 
Plautus)  asking  water  of  a  rock."  How  should  he 
have  the  face  to  teach  what  he  has  never  learned ; 
how  warm  the  frost  of  others  when  he  himself  was 
all  of  a  shiver  with  fear  ?  He  praises  Colet  for  his 
courage  and  zeal  in  the  cause  of   the  "  ancient  " 

^ Ep.  ad  CoUtum,  v.,  1 263-1 264. 


84  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

theology  as  against  the  "  new-fangled  race  of  theo- 
logians, who  spend  their  lives  in  mere  arguments  and 
sophistical  quibbling. "  Not  that  he  altogether  con- 
demns these  studies,  for  he  approves  of  every  kind 
of  study, 

"  but  taken  by  themselves,  with  no  admixture  of  more 
refined  and  ancient  letters,  they  seem  to  make  a  man  a 
conceited  and  disputatious  fellow — whether  they  can  ever 
make  him  a  wise  man,  let  others  decide.  For  they  seem 
to  exhaust  the  mind  with  a  kind  of  crude  and  barren 
subtlety;  there  is  no  sap  in  them,  nor  any  real  breath  of 
life. 

**  I  am  not  speaking  against  learned  and  approved  pro- 
fessors of  theology,  for  I  look  up  to  them  with  the  greatest 
respect,  but  against  that  mean  and  haughty  herd  of 
theologians  who  think  all  the  writings  of  all  authors  are 
worth  nothing  compared  to  themselves.  When  you, 
Colet,  went  into  the  fight  against  this  unassailable  horde 
that,  so  far  as  in  you  lay,  you  might  restore  that  ancient 
and  pure  theology,  now  overgrown  with  their  thorns,  to 
its  early  splendour  and  dignity,  you  took  upon  yourself, 
so  help  me  God! — a  task  in  many  ways  most  admirable, 
most  loyal  to  the  name  of  Theology  itself,  most  whole- 
some for  all  studious  men  and  especially  for  this  bloom- 
ing University  of  Oxford — but,  I  don't  conceal  it,  a  task 
full  of  difficulty  and  of  opposition.  Yet  you  will  over- 
come the  difficulty  with  your  learning  and  your  industry, 
and  your  great  soul  can  afford  to  overlook  the  opposition. 
There  are,  too,  among  those  theologians  not  a  few  who 
are  both  willing  and  able  to  help  such  honest  efforts  as 
yours.  Nay,  there  is  no  one  who  would  not  join  hands 
with  you,  since  there  is  not  a  doctor  in  this  famous 
school  who  has  not  listened  most  attentively  to  your 


i5oo]  First  Visit  to  England  85 

lectures    on    St.    Paul,    now    going    on    for    the    third 
year. 

"  I  am  not  wondering  that  you  should  take  upon  your 
shoulders  a  burden  to  which  you  may  be  equal,  but  that 
you  call  me,  a  man  of  no  account  whatever,  to  share  in 
so  great  an  enterprise.  For  you  ask  me — nay  you  urge 
upon  me,  that  as  you  are  lecturing  upon  Paul  so  I,  by 
expounding  the  ancient  Moses  or  the  eloquent  Isaiah, 
should  strive  to  rekindle  the  studies  of  this  school — 
chilled,  as  you  say,  by  these  long  months  of  winter." 

He  goes  on  to  protest  his  unfitness  for  the  task  and 
especially  to  defend  himself  against  the  charge  that 
he  had  given  Colet  reason  to  believe  he  might  accept 
his  suggestion. 

"  Nor  did  I  come  hither  to  teach  poetry  or  rhetoric, 
which  have  ceased  to  be  agreeable  to  me  since  they 
ceased  to  be  necessary.  I  refuse  the  one,  because  it 
does  not  accord  with  my  plans,  the  other  because  it  is 
beyond  my  powers.  You  blame  me  wrongly  in  the  one 
case,  my  dear  Colet,  because  I  have  never  had  before 
me  the  profession  of  so-called  secular  literature,  and  you 
urge  me  in  vain  to  the  other,  because  I  know  that  I  am 
unequal  to  it.  Besides,  if  I  were  never  so  fit,  I  could 
not  do  it,  for  I  must  soon  go  back  to  my  deserted  Paris." 

We  seem  to  find  here  a  suggestion  that  Colet  had 
laid  before  him  two  propositions, — one  that  he  might 
become  a  teacher  of  the  classic  literature  in  which 
he  was  already  a  master ;  the  other  that  he  should 
join  with  himself  in  setting  the  meaning  of  Scripture 
free  from  the  absurd  trammels  which  the  scholastic 
methods  of  interpretation  had  laid  upon  it.     Either 


86  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1498- 

of  these  tasks,  with  a  reasonable  prospect  of  support 
and  the  delightful  intercourse  of  academic  life, would, 
one  must  suppose,  have  been  a  supreme  attraction 
for  Erasmus.  The  only  possible  explanation  of  his 
refusal  is  his  dread  of  putting  his  neck  into  any  yoke 
whatever,  no  matter  how  easy  it  might  be.  A  pos- 
sible suggestion  of  this  motive  is  found  in  the  some- 
what enigmatic  sentence  that  "  poetry  and  rhetoric 
had  ceased  to  interest  him  since  they  had  ceased  to 
be  necessary. ' '  This  may  have  meant  that  literature 
in  itself  was  important  to  him  only  as  a  means  of 
livelihood,  and  since  he  was,  at  least  temporarily, 
provided  for,  he  did  not  care  to  teach  it  at  Oxford. 
Literature  was  henceforth  to  be  a  means  to  the 
higher  end  of  redeeming  theology,  the  regma  disci- 
plinarum,  the  "  queen  of  sciences,"  from  her  present 
degradation.  But  for  this  latter  work  he  was  not  as 
yet  prepared.  If  we  ask  why  he  did  not  choose  to 
continue  his  preparation  under  the  very  favourable 
conditions  at  Oxford,  we  may  perhaps  find  a  partial 
answer  in  his  deep-seated  dislike  of  the  work  of 
teaching.  He  could  talk  beautifully  about  it,  but  it 
seems  pretty  clear  that  he  always  hated  it.  So  Ox- 
ford lost  a  professor,  but  the  world  gained  a  man. 


CHAPTER   IV 

PARIS — THE  "ADAGIA" — THE  "ENCHIRIDION  MILI- 
TIS  CHRISTIANI  " — PANEGYRIC  ON  PHILIP  OF 
BURGUNDY 

1 500-1 506 

HIS  "  deserted  Paris,"  "  that  Gallic  dung-heap, " 
was  calling  to  Erasmus,  perhaps  with  the  same 
siren  voice  that  has  drawn  thither  so  many  another 
homeless  genius,  and  he  went.  He  was,  if  we  may 
beheve  his  later  wails,  pretty  well  supplied  with 
money,  which  he  had  turned  into  French  coin.  He 
is  very  careful  to  insist  that  he  had  not  received  this 
money  in  England,  but  if  not,  it  is  difificult  to  im- 
agine where  it  could  have  come  from.  He  was 
aware  of  a  law  forbidding  the  exportation  of  gold 
from  the  realm,  but  had  been  advised  by  his  friends 
that  this  law  applied  only  to  English  coin  and  so 
felt  safe.  The  customs  officers  at  Dover,  however, 
took  another  view  of  the  matter  and  left  him  nothing 
but  the  small  amount  allowed  by  law,  nor  could  his 
connections  in  high  quarters  ever  avail  him  to  make 
good  his  loss. 

An  account  of  the  affair,  written,  so  Erasmus  says, 
"  unless  he  is  mistaken,"  twenty-seven  years  after- 
ward,  brings   this  incident    into  direct  connection 

.87 


88  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1500 

with  the  earliest  piece  of  writing  in  which  Erasmus 
presented  himself  to  the  world  in  his  true  character. 
Speaking  '  of  his  mishap  from  the  lofty  position  of  a 
famous  scholar  before  whose  biting  satire  the  great 
ones  of  the  earth  might  well  tremble  a  little,  he  gives 
himself  great  praise  for  not  having  taken  immediate 
vengeance  on  the  king  and  the  country  which  had 
used  him  so  badly,  by  writing  something  against 
them.  He  refrained  partly  because  it  seemed  an 
unworthy  thing  to  do,  and  partly  because  he  would 
not  be  the  means  of  bringing  down  the  royal  wrath 
upon  his  dear  friends  in  England ;  and  so,  having  no 
resources,  he  determined  to  publish  something  that 
might  pay.  He  had  nothing  on  hand,  but  by  read- 
ing hard  for  a  few  days  he  "  got  together  in  haste 
quite  a  '  forest  '  of  adages,  thinking  that  a  book  of 
this  sort,  whatever  its  quality,  would,  by  its  very 
usefulness,  go  into  the  hands  of  students." 

This  account  of  the  origin  of  the  famous  Adages 
of  Erasmus  seems  in  the  main  reasonable.  It  was 
in  the  strictest  sense  a  bread-and-butter  undertaking, 
calculated  to  meet  a  demand  which  every  writer  of 
that  day  must  feel  and  for  which  there  was  no  ade- 
quate supply.  The  scholar,  no  matter  how  great 
his  claim  to  individuality,  could  not  get  on  without 
continual  references  to  classical  literature.  They 
were,  so  to  speak,  the  certificates  of  his  scholarship ; 
they  took  the  place  of  the  references  to  the  Christian 
and  Hebrew  Scriptures  by  which  the  mediaeval 
scholar  had  at  once  supported  his  views  and  demon- 
strated  his   learning.     Of   course   such   decoration 

'  Catalogus  lucubrationum,  op.  i.  ' 


I500]  The  Adagia  89 

ought  to  come  naturally  as  a  result  of  the  writer's 
own  wide  reading  and  profound  reflection  in  the 
classic  literature,  and  during  the  really  great  times 
of  the  Revival  of  Learning,  while  scholarship  was 
confined  to  comparatively  few  men,  and  these  men  of 
really  commanding  powers,  such  had  been  the  case. 
By  the  time  of  Erasmus,  however,  the  new  learn- 
ing was  falling  rapidly  into  its  second  stage ;  it  was 
becoming  more  widely  diffused  and,  naturally,  was 
drawing  to  itself  ever  more  and  more  second-rate 
material.  Learning  was  coming  to  be  fashionable, 
and  at  just  that  stage  all  aids  to  a  ready  acquirement 
of  at  least  the  appearance  of  scholarship  were  sure 
to  be  in  demand.  It  is  an  evidence  of  Erasmus' 
practical  good  sense  that  he  was  ready  to  advance 
his  most  serious  purposes  by  contributing  to  this 
popularisation  of  learning. 

Erasmus  was  always  fond  of  telling  how  rapidly 
he  worked,  but  in  the  present  case  we  have  every 
reason  to  believe  that  his  work  was  hasty  and 
experimental  in  the  extreme.  Nothing  more  un- 
scientific in  form  can  well  be  imagined  than  this 
collection  of  scattered  sayings  from  the  writings, 
chiefly,  of  classic  authors.  The  method,  practically 
unchanged  in  the  many  later  editions,  was  simply  to 
jot  down  at  random  some  verse  of  poetry  or  some 
word  having  a  peculiar  meaning  and  then  to  give  a 
very  brief  explanation  of  its  origin  and  value ;  then 
if  the  occasion  warranted,  upon  this  as  a  text 
to  write  a  little  essay.  In  this  personal  and  in- 
dividual comment  lies  the  real  importance  of  the 
Adages,  in  giving  us  an  idea  of  their  author.     It 


90  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1500 

was  this  personal  element  also  which  appealed  most 
strongly  to  those  of  his  own  time  who  were  capable 
of  valuing  it,  but  it  was  not  this  which  commended 
the  Adages,  probably,  to  the  widest  circle  of  readers. 
To  the  great  mass  of  young  students  and  to  the  in- 
creasing numbers  of  men  everywhere  who  were 
trying  their  hands  at  Latin  composition,  the  book 
was  rather  an  encyclopaedia  of  classical  quotations, 
from  which  they  could  select  the  needed  decorations 
of  their  style  without  the  trouble  of  going  to  the 
original  sources. 

To  these  two  lines  of  patronage  the  Adages  owed 
their  great  and  immediate  popularity.  The  first 
edition  was  printed  at  Paris  in  1500  and  contained 
about  eight  hundred  selections.  As  to  the  method 
of  the  future  editions  Erasmus  gives  us  some  in- 
formation. When  he  saw  that  the  book  was  received 
with  gratitude  by  scholars  and  was  apparently  going 
to  live,  and  moreover  that  publishers  were  vying  with 
each  other  in  printing  it,  he  kept  enriching  it  from 
time  to  time  as  his  own  leisure  or  the  supply  of 
available  books  gave  him  opportunity.  What  he 
regarded  as  the  final  edition  was  printed  at  Basel 
by  Froben  in  1523.  After  that  he  merely  annotated 
previous  editions,  "  rather  as  giving  to  others  ma- 
terial for  a  future  work  than  as  really  making  a  new 
book  with  proper  care."  '  This  first  edition  of  the 
Adages  was  dedicated  to  Mountjoy.  Without  the 
later  additions  it  must,  one  would  think,  have  been 
as  dry  reading  as  could  well  be  imagined,  but  the 
fact  of  its  popularity  is  unquestionable.     Edition 

'  Catalogus  lucubrationum ,  i. 


1500]  The  Adagia  91 

after  edition  appeared  with  great  rapidity,  so  that 
we  are  now  able  to  record  no  less  than  sixty-two 
within  the  author's  lifetime. 

As  for  the  pecuniary  rewards  which  Erasmus  may 
have  had  in  view,  there  is  no  indication  that  they 
were  immediate  or  considerable.  The  ethics  of 
book-publishing  were  at  that  time  in  a  highly  rudi- 
mentary state.  So  far  as  one  can  see  there  was 
nothing  to  prevent  any  printer  from  putting  forth 
any  writing  that  by  any  chance  got  into  his  hands. 
Erasmus  in  a  dedicatory  letter  to  Mountjoy  with  a 
later  edition  says  that  his  reason  for  the  new 
publication  was  that  the  earlier  editions  had  been 
printed  so  badly  that  one  might  suppose  the  er- 
rors had  been  made  intentionally.  In  another 
place '  he  says,  with  an  unusual  effort  at  accuracy, 
that  the  first  edition  of  the  Adages  was  published 
on  the  15th  of  June,  1500,  while  he  was  absent  from 
Paris.  This  date  is  certainly  a  very  early  one,  and 
we  have  to  bear  in  mind  that  Erasmus'  object  in 
giving  it  was  to  prove  that  he  had  got  ahead  of 
a  rival  compiler  of  proverbs  who  had  accused  him 
of  stealing  his  thunder.  It  agrees,  however,  with 
our  other  indications.  The  most  singular  thing 
about  it  is  that  a  young  author,  putting  forth  his 
first  ambitious  publication,  should  have  been  will- 
ing to  absent  himself  from  the  place  where  the  work 
was  being  done.  The  fact  was,  probably,  that  Eras- 
mus was  frightened  half  out  of  his  wits  by  the 
presence  of  the  plague  in  Paris,  and  this  impression 

'  ii.,  ad  init. 
*iii,'  57. 


92  Desiderius  Erasmus  t^soo 

is  strengthened  by  the  pains  he  takes  to  convince 
his  friend  Faustus  Andrelinus  of  his  uncommon 
freedom  from  the  vulgar  emotion  of  fear.  He  was 
at  Orleans  and  Faustus  had  urged  him  to  come  back 
to  Paris;  had  even,  so  Erasmus  says,  called  him  a 
coward  by  the  mouth  of  his  own  servant. 

"  This  reproach  would  not  be  endured  even  if  made 
against  a  Swiss  soldier;  against  a  poet,  a  lover  of  ease 
and  quiet,  it  does  n't  stick  at  all.  And  yet,  in  matters 
of  this  sort,  to  have  no  dread  whatever  seems  to  me  rather 
the  part  of  a  log  than  of  a  brave  man.  When  the  fight  is 
with  an  enemy  that  can  be  driven  back,  whose  blows  can 
be  returned,  who  can  be  conquered  by  fighting,  then  if 
a  man  wants  to  seem  brave,  let  him,  for  all  I  care.  The 
Lernean  Hydra,  last  and  hardest  of  all  the  labours  of 
Hercules,  could  not  be  overcome  with  steel  but  could  be 
beaten  by  Greek  fire;  but  what  can  you  do  against  an 
evil  that  can  be  neither  seen  nor  conquered  ?  There  are 
some  things  which  it  is  better  to  run  away  from  than  to 
conquer.  The  brave  .^neas  did  not  go  into  battle  with 
the  sirens,  but  turned  his  helm  far  away  from  that  shore 
of  danger.  '  But,'  you  say,  '  there  is  no  danger  ' — well, 
meanwhile  I,  on  the  safe  side  of  danger,  see  a  great 
many  persons  dying.  I  imitate  the  fox  in  Horace; — *  I 
am  alarmed  at  the  footsteps,  so  many  leading  towards 
you  and  so  few  away.'  In  this  condition  of  things  I 
would  n't  hesitate  to  fly,  not  merely  to  Orleans,  but  to 
Cadiz  or  to  the  farthest  of  the  far  Orkneys;  not  because 
I  am  a  timid  person  or  of  less  than  manly  courage,  but 
because  I  really  do  fear — not  to  die,  for  we  are  all  born 
to  die — but  to  die  by  my  own  fault.  If  Christ  warned 
his  disciples  to  flee  from  the  wrath  of  their  persecutors 


I500]  The  Adagia  93 

by  straightway  changing  their  residence,  why  should  I 
not  evade  so  deadly  a  foe  when  I  conveniently  can  ?  " 

Yet  he  is  not  happy  at  Orleans ;  the  Muses  grow 
chilly  in  that  city  of  law-books ;  he  means  to  come 
back,  and  meanwhile  he  begs  Faustus  to  write  a 
prefatory  letter  to  his  Adages,  which  he  has  just 
put  forth.  He  asks  this  not  for  the  merit  of  the 
work,  for  he  does  not  flatter  himself  so  far  as  not  to 
see  how  poor  it  is — but  the  worse  the  goods  the 
more  they  need  recommendation.  Faustus  gave 
the  letter  and  it  duly  appeared,  but  whether  it  did 
not  just  suit  Erasmus,  or  whether  he  could  not 
quite  bear  to  have  his  work  recommended  by  any- 
one, he  saw  fit  later  to  declare  that  the  printer  had 
wormed  it  out  of  Faustus.  Perhaps,  too,  Faustus 
had  a  little  overdone  it  and  in  the  extravagance 
of  this  festive  person's  praise  Erasmus  may  have 
detected  a  little  sting  of  sarcasm.  In  a  letter  to  his 
friend  and  pupil,  Augustinus,  Erasmus  reproves  him 
for  taking  too  flattering  a  tone  towards  himself  and 
says,  by  the  way, 

"  that  exaggeration  of  Faustus,  in  which  he  says  that  in 
me  alone  is  the  very  sanctuary  of  letters,  was  not  so  very 
delightful  to  me,  both  because  extravagant  praise  suits 
neither  my  modesty  nor  my  deserts  and  because  such 
figures  of  speech  are  as  a  rule  not  believed  and  simply 
arouse  envy.  They  are  moreover  akin  to  irony,  just  as 
what  you  wrote  me,  although  in  most  flattering  terms, 
did  not  really  flatter  me  at  all:  '  O,  most  attentive  teacher, 
1,  thy  devoted  pupil,  dedicate  myself  to  thee;  command 
me  as  thou  wilt;  naught  that  I  have  is  mine,  but  all  is 


94  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1500 

thine!  '  All  that  kind  of  talk,  it  seems  to  me,  ought  to 
be  kept  as  far  as  possible  from  a  sincere  attachment. 
For  where  there  is  real  affection  as  there  is,  I  think,  be- 
tween us,  what  use  is  there  in  such  figures  of  speech  ? 
And  where  affection  is  insincere  they  are  wont  to  be 
turned  into  a  suspicion  of  malice.  Therefore  you  would 
greatly  oblige  me  if  you  would  completely  banish  such 
exaggerations  from  your  letters,  that  simple  affection 
may  find  its  proper  language  and  that  you  may  bear  in 
mind  that  you  are  writing  to  an  attached  friend  and  not 
to  a  tyrant." 

This  sounds  very  fine  and  would  impress  one  with 
a  great  sense  of  Erasmus'  ingenuous  nature,  if  one 
could  forget  that  this  is  precisely  the  time  when  he 
was  carrying  on  the  correspondence  with  Battus  and 
the  Marchioness  of  Veere  which  we  have  already 
examined.'  Indeed  the  years  from  1500  to  1506  are 
the  most  perplexing  in  Erasmus'  whole  life.  He 
was  continually  on  the  move,  now  at  Paris,  now  at 
Orleans,  again  in  the  Low  Countries,  visiting  this 
friend  and  that,  with  no  regular  source  of  income, 
yet  somehow  pulling  himself  through.  During  all 
this  time  there  is  hardly  a  letter  which  does  not 
speak  of  him  as  the  victim  of  a  cruel  fate.  Of  course 
it  is  always  the  fault  of  someone  else,  but  human 
nature  has  not  so  greatly  changed  in  four  hundred 
years  that  we  can  afford  to  take  his  word  for  it  that 
all  his  patrons  had  deserted  him  with  no  cause  what- 
ever on  his  part.  To  get  the  proper  perspective  for 
an  understanding  of  the  situation  we  must  remind 
ourselves  that  Erasmus  was  as  yet  a  very  doubtful 

'  See  p.  486-99. 


i5oo]  The  Adagia  95 

investment.  His  real  individuality  was  hardly  show- 
ing itself.  He  had  positively  rejected  all  proposals 
of  regular  occupation ;  he  was  making  considerable 
demands  on  life,  but  he  would  take  life  only  on  his 
own  terms. 

The  motive  of  Erasmus'  wanderings  in  these  early 
years  of  the  century  is  not  clear.  More  easily  per- 
ceptible than  any  other  is  his  fear  of  the  plague  and 
a  nervous  dread  of  other  illness.  When  things  went 
badly  in  one  place  he  betook  himself  to  another, 
but  it  is  hard  to  find  much  principle  even  in  his 
health-seeking.  He  speaks  of  finding  relief  in  his 
native  land  and  again  writes  that  Zeeland  is  hell  to 
him,  he  "  never  felt  a  harsher  climate  or  one  less 
suited  to  his  poor  little  body."  The  bishop  of 
Cambrai  had  long  since  failed  him.  The  bishop's 
brother,  the  abbot  of  St.  Bertin,  formerly  a  great 
friend,  was  of  no  use ;  the  Marchioness  was  herself  in 
some  mysterious  trouble ;  Battus  alone,  his  precious 
Battus,  was  quite  true  to  him,  but  not  able  to  do 
much  for  him.  Altogether  it  seems  most  probable 
that  the  conspiracy  of  the  fates  against  our  scholar 
may  have  been  nothing  more  than  a  common  feel- 
ing of  distrust  toward  a  sturdy  beggar,  who  had  not 
yet  proved  his  value  and  who  was  not  inclined  to  put 
up  with  any  half-way  charity. 

But  meanwhile  Erasmus  was  always  at  work. 
His  real,  permanent,  and  persistent  interest  was  his 
own  self-culture — not  in  any  narrow  or  mean  sense, 
but  that  he  might  be  equal  to  the  great  demands 
he  was  preparing  to  make  upon  himself.  Of  all 
things  he  wished  to  make  himself  strong  in  Greek, 


96  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1503- 

and  it  is  clear  that  he  was  dissatisfied  with  any 
teaching  which  thus  far  had  been  open  to  him. 
From  this  we  ought  not  hastily  to  draw  conclusions 
as  to  the  badness  of  Greek  teaching  at  Paris.  Eras- 
mus, like  most  men  of  original  genius,  was  not  a 
docile  pupil.  He  knew  intuitively,  what  it  takes 
most  of  us  a  lifetime  to  find  out,  that  every  man 
must  teach  himself  all  that  he  ever  really  and  effect- 
ively knows,  and  that  this  is  especially  true  of  all 
linguistic  knowledge.  Erasmus  complains  of  his 
Greek  teachers,  but  he  did  not  sit  down  and  wait 
for  better  ones.  He  went  to  work  with  such  appli- 
ances as  he  had  and  read  Greek  books  and  gradually 
came  to  read  them  well.  He  learned  Greek,  in 
short,  as  he  had  learned  Latin,  by  using  it. 

From  time  to  time,  however,  he  gave  evidences  of 
his  progress  in  culture  by  some  production  intended 
for  wider  circulation.  A  specimen  of  such  occa- 
sional writing  is  his  Enchiridion  militis  christiani,  a 
title  which  has  almost  invariably  been  rendered,  "  A 
Handbook  of  the  Christian  Soldier, ' '  but  which  bears 
equally  well  the  meaning,  "  The  Christian  Soldier's 
Dagger. '  *  The  essential  point  is  that  it  was  a  some- 
thing "  handy,"  a  vade  mecum  for  the  average 
gentleman  who  aimed  to  be  a  good  Christian.  Eras- 
mus uses  the  word  in  both  meanings  at  different 
times.  Writing,  according  to  his  own  reckoning, 
nearly  thirty  years  afterwards,'  Erasmus  gives  us  an 
account  of  the  origin  of  this  treatise,  which  is  in- 
teresting as  showing  how  unsystematic  were  the 
motives  which  led,  or  which  he  imagined  led,  to  the 

'  Catalogus  lucubrationum,  i. 


I503]     Enchiridion  Militis  Christiani       97 

writing  of  many  of  his  most  famous  works.  He 
says  "  the  thing  was  born  of  chance."  He  was  at 
Tournehens  to  escape  the  plague  then  raging  in 
Paris  and  there  came  into  relations  with  a  friend 
of  Battus,  a  gentleman  who  was  "  his  own  worst 
enemy,"  a  gay  and  reckless  liver.  This  gentleman's 
wife  was  a  woman  of  singular  piety  and  in  great 
distress  for  her  husband's  soul.  She  begged  Eras- 
mus to  write  something  which  might  move  him  to 
repentance,  but  to  be  careful  that  this  warning 
should  not  appear  to  come  from  her;  for  "  he  was 
cruel  to  her  even  to  blows,  after  the  manner  of 
soldiers."  So  Erasmus  noted  down  a  few  things 
and  showed  them  to  his  friends,  who  approved  them 
so  highly  that  some  time  afterward  at  Louvain  he 
employed  his  leisure  in  putting  them  into  shape. 
For  a  while  the  book  attracted  little  attention ;  but 
later  it  became  one  of  the  most  popular  and  widely 
read  of  its  author's  more  serious  works.  It  was  first 
printed  in  1503  and  after  that  ran  through  edition 
after  edition  with  great  rapidity.  Naturally,  it 
brought  out  also  no  little  opposition ;  but  that  will 
explain  itself  when  Ave  have  examined  a  little  more 
carefully  the  aim  and  contents  of  the  book. 

Its  object  is  especially  to  emphasise  the  difference 
between  a  true  religion  of  the  heart  and  an  outward, 
formal  religion  of  observances.  It  is  divided  into 
thirteen  chapters  of  varying  length,  each  headed 
with  a  caption  rather  vaguely  indicating  its  con- 
tents. After  a  somewhat  long  introduction  he  pro- 
ceeds to  a  definition  of  the  human  soul,  following  in 
the  main  the  lead  of  the  early  Fathers,  especially  of 


98  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1503- 

Origen.  He  distinguishes  between  the  soul  of  man 
and  a  something  higher  yet,  which  they  describe  as 
spirit.  The  body  is  the  purely  material,  the  spirit 
is  the  purely  divine,  but  the  soul,  living  between 
the  two,  belongs  permanently  to  neither,  but  is 
tossed  back  and  forth  from  one  to  the  other  accord- 
ing as  it  resists  or  gives  way  to  the  temptations  of 
the  flesh.  The  body  is  the  harlot,  soliciting  to  evil. 
"  Thus  the  spirit  makes  us  gods;  the  flesh  makes  us 
beasts;  the  soul  makes  us  men."  This  distinction 
is  again  and  again  illustrated,  and  the  chapter  ends 
with  a  declaration  of  the  true  rule  of  Christian  piety ; 
viz.,  that  every  man  see  to  it  that  he  judge  himself 
according  to  his  own  temptation.' 

"  One  man  rejoices  in  fasting,  in  sacred  observances, 
in  going  often  to  church,  in  repeating  psalms,  as  many  as 
possible — but  in  the  spirit.  Now  ask,  according  to  our 
rule,  what  he  is  doing: — if  he  is  looking  for  praise  or  re- 
ward, he  smacks  of  the  flesh — not  of  the  spirit.  If  he  is 
merely  indulging  his  own  nature,  doing  what  pleases  him, 
this  is  not  a  thing  to  be  proud  of,  but  rather  to  be  feared. 
There  is  your  danger.  You  pray  and  you  judge  the  man 
who  prays  not;  you  fast  and  you  condemn  the  man  who 
eats.  Whoever  does  not  do  as  you  do,  you  think  is  in- 
ferior to  you.  Look  out  that  your  fasting  be  not  to  the 
flesh!  Your  brother  needs  your  help,  but  you  meanwhile 
are  mumbling  your  prayers  to  God  and  neglecting  your 
brother's  poverty:  God  will  be  deaf  to  such  prayers  as 
that.  .  .  .  You  love  your  wife  just  because  she  is 
your  wife;  that  is  very  little,  for  the  heathen  do  the 
same.     Or  you  love  her  only   for  your  own  pleasure; 

'v.,  20-D. 


I503]     Enchiridion  Militis  Christiani       99 

then  your  love  is  to  the  flesh:  but  if  you  love  her  chiefly 
because  you  see  in  her  the  image  of  Christ,  piety,  mod- 
esty, sobriety,  chastity,  then  you  love  her  not  in  herself, 
but  in  Christ — nay,  you  love  Christ  in  her  and  so  God  in 
the  spirit." 

The  book  then  goes  on  to  more  specific  injunctions 
to  the  Christian  life,  always  with  the  undernote  of 
sincerity  as  the  main  thing.  Here  is  a  striking 
passage  from  the  second  canon  of  the  eighth 
chapter :  * 

"  Christ  said  to  all  men  that  he  who  will  not  take  up 
his  cross  and  follow  after  him  is  not  worthy  of  him. 
Now  you  have  no  concern  with  dying  to  the  flesh  with 
Christ,  if  living  in  his  spirit  does  not  concern  you.  It 
is  not  yours  to  be  crucified  to  the  world,  if  living  to  God 
be  not  yours.  To  be  buried  with  Christ  is  nothing  to 
you,  if  rising  in  glory  is  nothing  to  you.  Christ's  humil- 
ity, his  poverty,  his  trial,  his  scorn,  his  toil,  his  struggle, 
his  grief,  are  nothing  to  you,  if  you  have  no  care  for  his 
kingdom.  What  more  base  than  to  claim  for  yourself  the 
reward  with  others,  but  to  put  off  upon  a  certain  few 
the  toil  for  which  the  reward  is  offered  ?  What  more 
wanton  than  to  wish  to  reign  with  our  Head,  when  you 
are  not  willing  to  suffer  with  him  ?  Therefore,  my 
brother,  do  not  look  about  to  see  what  others  do  and 
flatter  yourself  with  their  example; — a  difficult  thing  in- 
deed and  known  to  very  few,  even  to  monks,  is  this  dying 
to  sin,  to  carnal  desire  and  to  the  world.  Yet  this  is  the 
common  profession  of  all  Christians." 

So  again  in  the  fourth  canon:' 

'  V. ,  23-A. 
«v.,  26-D. 


loo  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1503- 

"  You  fast, — a  pious  work  indeed  to  all  appearance; 
but  to  what  purpose  is  this  fasting  ?  Is  it  to  save  provi- 
sions or  to  seem  to  be  more  pious  than  you  are  ?  Then 
your  eye  is  evil.  Or  do  you  fast  to  keep  your  health  ? 
Why  then  do  you  fear  disease  ?  Lest  it  keep  you  from 
pleasure  ?  Your  eye  is  evil.  Or  do  you  desire  health  that 
you  may  devote  yourself  to  study  ?  Then  to  what  end 
is  this  study  ? — that  you  may  get  a  church  office  ?  But 
why  do  you  wish  the  office  ? — that  you  may  live  to  your- 
self and  not  to  Christ  ?  Then  you  have  wandered  from 
the  standard  which  the  Christian  ought  to  have  set  up 
everywhere.  You  take  food  that  your  body  may  be 
strong,  but  you  desire  this  strength  that  you  may  be 
equal  to  the  study  of  sacred  things  and  to  holy  vigils: — 
you  have  hit  the  mark;  but  if  you  look  after  your  health 
lest  you  lose  your  beauty  and  so  be  incapable  of  sensual 
pleasure,  then  you  have  fallen  away  from  Christ  and 
have  set  up  another  God  for  yourself. 

"  There  are  those  who  worship  certain  divinities  with 
certain  rites.  One  salutes  Christopher  every  day,  but 
only  while  he  is  gazing  upon  his  image,  and  for  what  ? 
because  he  has  persuaded  himself  that  he  will  thus  be 
safe  for  that  day  from  an  evil  death.  Another  worships 
a  certain  Rochus,  and  why  ?  because  he  fancies  he  will 
drive  the  plague  away  from  his  body.  Another  mumbles 
prayers  to  Barbara  or  George,  lest  he  fall  into  the  hands 
of  his  enemy.  This  man  fasts  to  ApoUonia  to  prevent 
the  toothache.  That  one  gazes  upon  an  image  of  the 
god-like  Job,  that  he  may  be  free  of  the  itch.  Some  de- 
vote a  certain  part  of  their  profits  to  the  poor,  lest  their 
business  go  to  wreck.  A  candle  is  lighted  to  Jerome  to 
rescue  some  business  that  is  going  to  pieces.  In  short, 
whatever  our  fears  and  our  desires,  we  set  so  many  gods 
over  them  and  these  are  different  in  different  nations;  as, 


\ 


I503]     Enchiridion  Militis  Christian!      loi 

for  example,  Paul  does  for  the  French  what  Jerome  does 
for  our  people,  and  James  and  John  are  not  good  every- 
where for  what  they  can  do  in  certain  places.  Now  this 
kind  of  piety,  unless  it  be  brought  back  to  Christ  instead 
of  being  merely  a  care  for  the  convenience  or  incon- 
venience of  our  bodies,  is  not  Christian,  for  it  is  not  far 
removed  from  the  superstition  of  those  who  used  to  vow 
tithes  to  Hercules  in  order  to  get  rich — or  a  cock  to 
.^sculapius  to  get  well  of  an  illness,  or  who  slew  a  bull 
to  Neptune  for  a  favourable  voyage.  The  names  are 
changed,  but  the  object  is  the  same.  You  pray  to  God 
to  escape  a  sudden  death  and  not  rather  that  he  may 
grant  you  a  better  mind,  so  that  whenever  death  over- 
takes you  it  may  not  find  you  unprepared.  You  never 
think  of  changing  your  way  of  life  and  yet  you  pray  God 
to  let  you  live.  What  then  are  you  asking  ? — why,  only 
that  you  may  keep  on  sinning  as  long  as  possible.  You 
pray  for  wealth  and  know  not  how  to  use  wealth;  so  you 
are  praying  for  your  own  ruin.  If  you  pray  for  health 
and  then  abuse  it,  is  not  your  piety  impious  ? 

"  An  objection  will  be  made  here  by  some  'religious ' 
fellows,  who  look  upon  piety  as  a  profession,  or,  in  other 
words,  by  certain  sweet  phrases  of  blessing  seduce  the 
souls  of  the  innocent,  serving  their  own  bellies  aiid  not 
Jesus  Christ:  '  What,'  they  will  say,  '  do  you  forbid  the 
worship  of  the  saints,  in  whom  God  is  honoured  ? '  In- 
deed I  do  not  so  much  condemn  those  who  do  this  from 
a  certain  simple  superstition  as  those  who,  seeking  their 
own  profit,  put  forth  things  that  might  perhaps  be  toler- 
ated with  pure  and  lofty  piety,  but  encourage  for  their 
own  advantage  the  ignorance  of  the  common  people. 
This  ignorance  I  do  not  in  the  least  despise,  but  I  can- 
not bear  to  have  them  taking  indifferent  things  for  the 
most  important,  the  least  for  the  greatest.     I  will  even 


I02  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1503- 

approve  their  asking  Rochus  for  a  life  of  health  if  they 
will  consecrate  their  life  to  Christ;  but  I  should  like  it 
still  better  if  they  would  simply  pray  that  their  love  of 
virtue  may  be  increased  through  their  hatred  of  vice. 
Let  them  lay  their  living  and  dying  in  God's  hands,  and 
say  with  Paul  '  whether  we  live  or  whether  we  die,  we 
live  or  die  to  the  Lord. '  .  .  .  I  will  bear  with  weak- 
ness, but,  like  Paul,  I  will  show  you  a  more  excellent 
way." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  even  thus  early  in  Erasmus' 
moral  appeal,  he  does  not  aim  at  destroying  any- 
thing. Even  for  the  worship  of  saints  he  has  plenty 
of  room  in  his  thought,  but  he  says :  * 

"  the  way  to  worship  the  saints  is  to  imitate  their  virtues. 
The  saint  cares  more  for  this  kind  of  reverence  than  if 
you  burn  a  hundred  candles  for  him.  You  think  it  a 
great  thing  to  be  borne  to  your  grave  in  the  cowl  of 
Francis;  but  the  likeness  of  his  garment  will  profit  you 
nothing  after  you  are  dead,  if  your  morals  were  unlike 
his  when  you  were  alive.  .  .  .  You  pay  the  greatest 
reverence  to  the  ashes  of  Paul,  and  no  harm  if  your  own 
religion  is  consistent  with  this.  But  if  you  adore  these 
dead  and  silent  ashes  and  neglect  that  image  of  him 
which  lives  and  speaks  and,  as  it  were,  breathes  to  this 
day  in  his  writings,  is  not  your  religion  preposterous  ? 
You  worship  the  bones  of  Paul  laid  away  in  a  shrine,  but 
you  do  not  worship  the  mind  of  Paul  enshrined  in  his 
writings.  You  make  great  things  of  a  scrap  of  his  body 
seen  through  a  glass  case,  but  you  do  not  marvel  at  the 
whole  soul  of  Paul  that  gleams  through  his  works.  .  .  . 
Let  infidels,  for  whom  they  were  given,  wonder  at  these 
•v.,  31.D. 


I 


I503]     Enchiridion  Militis  Christiani      103 

signs,  but  do  you,  a  believer,  embrace  the  books  of  that 
man,  so  that,  while  you  doubt  not  that  God  is  able  to  do 
all  things,  you  may  learn  to  love  Him  above  all  things. 
You  honour  an  image  of  the  face  of  Christ,  badly  cut  in 
stone  or  painted  in  colours,  but  far  more  honour  ought  to 
be  given  to  that  image  of  his  soul  which  by  the  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  made  manifest  in  the  Gospels.  .  .  . 
You  gaze  with  awe  upon  a  tunic  or  a  handkerchief  said 
to  be  those  of  Christ,  but  you  fall  asleep  over  the  oracles 
of  the  law  of  Christ." 

With  constant  reference  to  Paul  as  the  greatest  of 
human  teachers,  Erasmus  comes  to  the  monastic 
life  in  some  detail.* 

"  '  Love,'  says  Paul,  '  is  to  edify  your  neighbour,'  and 
if  only  this  were  done,  nothing  could  be  more  joyous  or 
more  easy  than  the  life  of  the  '  religious  ' ;  but  now  this 
life  seems  gloomy,  full  of  Jewish  superstitions,  not  in  any 
way  free  from  the  vices  of  laymen  and  in  some  ways  more 
corrupt.  If  Augustine,  whom  they  boast  of  as  the  founder 
of  their  system,  were  to  come  to  life  again,  he  would  not 
recognise  them;  he  would  cry  out  that  he  had  never  ap- 
proved this  sort  of  a  life,  but  had  organized  a  way  of 
living  according  to  the  rule  of  the  apostles,  not  according 
to  the  sujDerstition  of  the  Jews.  But  now  I  hear  some  of 
the  more  sensible  ones  say: — '  We  must  be  on  our  guard 
in  the  least  things  lest  we  gradually  slip  into  greater 
vices.'  I  hear  and  I  approve;  but  we  ought  none  the 
less  to  be  on  our  guard  lest  we  get  so  bound  up  in  these 
lesser  things  that  we  wholly  fall  away  from  the  greater. 
The  danger  is  plainer  on  that  side,  but  greater  on  this. 
Look  out  for  Scylla,  but  do  not  fall  into  Charybdis.     To 

•v.,  36-A. 


I04  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1503- 

do  those  things  is  well,  but  to  put  your  trust  in  them  is 
perilous.  Paul  does  not  forbid  us  to  make  use  of  the 
'  elements, '  but  he  would  not  have  the  man  who  is  free 
in  Christ  made  a  slave  to  them.  He  does  not  condemn 
the  law  of  works,  but  would  have  it  properly  applied. 
Without  these  things  you  will  perchance  not  be  a  pious 
man,  but  it  is  not  these  that  make  you  pious. 

"  What,  then,  shall  the  Christian  do  ?  Shall  he 
neglect  the  commands  of  the  Church,  despise  the  honour- 
able traditions  of  the  Fathers,  and  condemn  pious  observ- 
ances ?  Nay,  if  he  is  a  weakling  he  will  hold  on  to  these 
as  necessary;  if  he  is  strong  and  perfect,  he  will  observe 
them  so  much  the  more,  lest  through  his  wisdom  he  offend 
his  weak  brother,  and  slay  him  for  whom  Christ  died. 
These  things  he  ought  to  do  and  not  leave  the  others 
undone.  .  .  .  Your  body  is  clothed  with  the  monk- 
ish cowl;  what,  then,  if  your  soul  wears  an  earthly  gar- 
ment ?  If  the  outer  man  is  veiled  in  a  snowy  tunic,  let 
also  the  vestment  of  the  inner  man  be  white  like  snow. 
You  keep  silence  outwardly;  see  to  it  so  much  the  more 
that  your  mind  within  is  fixed  in  silent  attention.  You 
bend  the  knee  of  the  body  in  the  visible  temple;  but  that 
is  nothing  if  in  the  temple  of  the  heart  you  are  standing 
upright  against  God.  You  adore  the  wood  of  the  cross; 
— follow  much  more  the  mystery  of  the  cross.  Do  you 
go  into  a  fast  and  abstain  from  those  things  which  do  not 
defile. the  man  and  yet  not  refrain  from  obscene  conver- 
sation which  defiles  both  your  own  conscience  and  that 
of  others  ?  Food  is  withheld  from  the  body  and  shall  the 
soul  gorge  itself  upon  the  husks  of  the  swine  ?  You 
build  a  temple  of  stone;  you  have  places  sacred  to  re- 
ligion ;  what  profits  it  if  the  temple  of  the  soul,  whose  wall 
Ezekiel  dug  through,  is  profaned  with  the  abominations 
of  the  Egyptians  ?     ...     If  the  body  be  kept  pure 


I503]     Enchiridion  Militis  Christiani      105 

and  yet  you  are  covetous,  then  the  soul  is  polluted.  You 
sing  psalms  with  your  bodily  lips,  but  listen  within  to 
what  your  soul  is  saying:  you  are  blessing  with  the  mouth 
and  cursing  with  the  heart.  Bodily  you  are  bound  within 
a  narrow  cell,  but  with  your  thoughts  you  wander  over 
the  wide  earth.  You  hear  the  word  of  God  with  your 
bodily  ear:  hear  it  rather  within." 

So  much  for  the  monks.  As  to  the  general  moral 
standards  of  his  day  Erasmus  is  equally  clear  and 
vigorous  and  is  interesting  especially  from  the  com- 
parison he  makes  with  the  morals  of  ancient  times.* 

"Turn  the  annals  of  the  ancients,"  he  bursts  out, 
"  and  compare  the  manners  of  our  time.  When  was  true 
honour  less  respected  ?  When  were  riches,  no  matter 
how  gained,  ever  so  highly  esteemed  ?  In  what  age  was 
ever  that  word  of  Horace '  more  true — 

'  A  dowried  wife,  friends,  beauty,  birth,  fair  fame, 
These  are  the  gifts  of  money,  heavenly  dame.' 

When  was  luxury  ever  more  reckless  ?  When  were  vice 
and  adultery  ever  more  widespread  or  less  punished 
or  less  condemned  ?  .  .  .  Who  does  not  think  pov- 
erty the  last  extreme  of  misfortune  and  disgrace  ?  " 

It  is  the  cry,  familiar  to  all  ages,  especially  of 
.  course  at  times  when  civilisation  has  reached  a  high 
point,  that  all  honour  may  be  bought  for  money  and 
place.  It  shows  no  especial  acuteness  on  Erasmus' 
part,  but  it  does  prove  his  courage  and  his  clear 
Christian  insight.     That  he  should  fancy  the  heroes 

'v.,  40-D. 

'  Horace,  Epp. ,  i. ,  6,  36.     Conington's  translation. 


io6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1503- 

of  the  classic  world  to  have  been  superior  to  the 
modern  Christians  of  his  own  day  was  a  natural  part 
of  the  classic  enthusiasm  in  which  he  lived.  Nor 
can  we  doubt  that  it  greatly  strengthened  the  moral 
argument  in  his  time  to  add  these  examples  of  purely 
non-Christian  virtue  to  those  furnished  by  the  well- 
worn  heroes  of  the  Jewish  past. 

A  very  characteristic  touch  is  found  in  Erasmus' 
reference  to  the  prevailing  rage  for  information,  also 
a  vice  of  an  over-eager  age.* 

"  Let  me  speak  of  another  error.  They  call  him  a 
clever  man  and  skilled  in  affairs  who,  catching  at  all 
kinds  of  rumours,  knows  what  is  going  on  all  over  the 
world:  what  is  the  fortune  of  the  merchants,  what  the 
tyrant  of  the  Britains  is  planning,  what  is  the  news  at 
Rome,  what  is  the  latest  happening  in  Gaul,  how  the 
Dacians  and  Scythians  are  getting  on,  what  the  princes 
are  thinking  about, — in  short,  the  man  who  is  eager  to 
do  battle  about  every  kind  of  affairs  among  every  race  of 
men,  that  man  they  call  wise.  But  what  is  more  sense- 
less, more  foolish,  than  to  be  running  after  things  remote, 
that  have  nothing  to  do  with  yourself,  and  not  even  to 
think  of  what  is  going  on  in  your  own  heart  and  what  be- 
longs especially  to  you.  You  talk  about  the  troubles  in 
Britain;  tell  rather  what  is  troubling  your  own  heart, — 
envy,  lust,  ambition;  how  far  these  have  been  sent  under 
the  yoke,  — what  hope  there  is  of  victory, — how  far  the 
war  is  advanced, — how  the  plan  of  campaign  is  laid  out. 
If  in  these  things  you  are  watchful,  with  eyes  and  ears 
well  trained,  if  you  are  cunning  and  cautious,  then  in- 
deed I  will  declare  you  to  be  a  clever  man." 

'v.,  44- A. 


I503J     Enchiridion  Militis  Christiani      107 

A  very  interesting  example  of  Erasmus'  insistence 
upon  the  essential  thing  and  his  indifference  to  names 
and  forms  is  in  the  chapter  which  describes  the  opin- 
ions worthy  of  the  Christian.  It  has  almost  a  social- 
istic ring,  so  sharply  does  he  emphasise  the  duty  of 
Christian  charity.' 

"  You  thought  it  was  only  monks  to  whom  property 
was  forbidden  and  poverty  enjoined  ?  You  were  wrong; 
both  commands  apply  to  all  Christians.  The  law  pun- 
ishes you  if  you  take  what  belongs  to  another;  it  does 
not  punish  you  if  you  take  what  is  yours  away  from  your 
brother  when  he  needs  it;  but  Christ  will  punish  both. 
If  you  are  a  magistrate  the  office  should  not  make  you 
more  fierce,  but  the  responsibility  should  make  you  more 
cautious.  '  But,'  you  say,  '  I  do  not  hold  a  church 
office;  I  am  not  a  priest  or  a  bishop.'  Quite  so,  but 
you  are  a  Christian,  are  you  not  ?  See  to  it  whose 
man  you  be,  if  you  are  not  a  man  of  the  Church.  Christ 
is  come  into  such  contempt  in  the  world,  that  they 
think  it  a  fine  thing  and  a  royal  to  have  no  dealings 
with  him  and  despise  a  person  the  more,  the  more 
closely  he  is  bound  to  him.  Do  you  not  hear  every 
day  some  angry  layman  throwing  in  our  faces  as  a  vio- 
lent reproach  the  words  'Clerk!'  'Priest!'  'Monk!' 
and  that  with  the  same  temper  and  the  same  voice  as  if 
he  were  charging  us  with  incest  or  sacrilege  ?  Of  a  truth 
I  wonder  why  they  don't  attack  Baptism,  or  like  the  Sar- 
acens assault  the  name  of  Christ  as  something  infamous. 
If  they  would  say  '  bad  Clerk!  '  '  unworthy  Priest!  '  '  im- 
pious Monk !  '  we  could  bear  it  as  coming  from  those  who 
were  rebuking  the  character  of  the  man  and  not  the  pro- 
fession of  virtue.     But  those  who  call  the  rape  of  virgins, 

'v.,47-D. 


io8  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1503- 

the  plunder  of  war,  the  gain  and  loss  of  money  at  dice 
deeds  of  glory,  these  people  have  no  word  to  throw  at 
another  more  full  of  contempt  and  shame  than  '  Monk!  ' 
or  '  Priest!  ' — though  it  is  clear  enough  what  these  people, 
Christians  in  nothing  but  the  name,  think  of  Christ. 

"  There  is  not  one  Lord  for  bishops  and  another  for 
civil  rulers;  both  are  vicegerents  of  the  same  Lord  and 
both  must  render  an  account  to  him.  The  office  of  the 
Christian  prince  is  not  to  excel  others  in  wealth,  but,  as 
far  as  possible,  to  seek  the  advantage  of  all.  Turn  not 
what  belongs  to  the  public  to  your  own  profit,  but  spend 
whatever  is  yours,  even  yourself,  for  the  public  good. 
The  people  owe  much  to  you,  but  you  owe  everything  to 
them.  High-sounding  names,  '  Invictus,'  '  Sacrosanctus,' 
'  Afaj'estas,^  though  your  ears  are  forced  to  hear  them, 
yet  ascribe  them  all  to  Christ,  to  whom  alone  they  belong. 
The  crime  of  icesce  majestatis,  which  others  bring  forward 
with  frightful  clamour, — let  this  be  to  you  a  very  small 
matter.  He  alone  violates  the  majesty  of  the  prince 
who,  under  the  name  of  a  prince,  does  things  contrary  to 
law,  cruel,  violent,  or  criminal.  Let  no  attack  move  you 
so  little  as  one  which  touches  you  personally.  Remem- 
ber that  you  are  a  public  person,  and  that  it  is  your  duty 
to  think  only  of  the  public  good.  If  you  are  wise  con- 
sider, not  how  great  you  are,  but  how  great  a  burden 
rests  upon  your  shoulders.  The  greater  danger  you  are 
in,  so  much  the  less  seek  indulgence  for  yourself,  and 
choose  the  model  for  your  administration,  not  from  your 
fathers  or  from  your  partisans,  but  from  Christ.  What 
can  be  more  absurd  than  that  a  Christian  prince  should 
set  up  Hannibal,  Alexander,  Caesar,  or  Pompey  as  an 
example  to  himself  ?  .  ,  .  Nothing  is  so  becoming, 
so  splendid,  so  glorious  in  kings  as  to  attain  as  nearly  as 
may  be  to  the  perfect  likeness  of  Jesus,  the  supreme 


I5031     Enchiridion  Militis  Christiani      109 

king,  greatest  and  best.  .  .  .  *  Apostolus,'  'Pastor ^' 
'  jEpiscopus,'  these  are  names  of  duties,  not  of  govern- 
ment; '  Papa,'  '  Addas,'  are  titles  of  love,  not  of  domin- 
ion. But  why  should  I  go  into  this  ocean  of  vulgar 
errors?"  "*" 

The  Enchiridion  closes  with  five  chapters  of  re- 
medies against  certain  vices :  lust,  avarice,  ambition, 
arrogance,  and  anger.  These  prescriptions  have  to 
us  so  obvious  a  sound  that  one  easily  overlooks  their 
real  importance.  Their  value  consists  in  this :  that 
in  an  age  of  formal  righteousness  they  direct  the 
conscience  of  the  individual  man  straight  back  to 
the  sources  of  all  Christian  living,  to  the  plain  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  and  the  plain  argument  of  common 
sense.  We  ought  to  follow  Scripture, — yes,  but 
because  Solomon  kept  a  harem  of  concubines,  that 
is  no  example  for  us.  Peter  denied  the  Christ  for 
whom  he  afterward  died ;  but  that  is  no  excuse  for 
perjury.  The  Christian  law  is  thus  made  plain  to  the 
individual  conscience. 

It  has  seemed  worth  while  to  go  into  the  contents 
of  this  little  book  with  more  care  than  its  extent 
might  appear  to  warrant,  because  it  is  the  earliest 
formulated  expression  of  those  principles  of  inter- 
pretation which  form  the  basis  of  Erasmus'  whole 
mature  life  and  thought.  It  is  for  him,  as  it  were, 
a  programme,  which  he  was  to  fill  out  in  detail,  in 
the  long  series  of  writings  that  now  began  to  flow 
rapidly  from  his  pen.  In  it  he  made  his  challenge 
to  the  world,  yet  with  such  moderation,  such  care- 
ful weighing  and  balancing  of  views,  that  he  evid- 


no  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1503- 

ently  hoped  to  win  the  support  of  all  classes  in 
what  he  began  to  feel  was  his  life-work. 

We  are  always  told  that  Erasmus  here  in  the 
Enchiridion  began  his  unceasing  warfare  upon  the 
monks ;  but  if  we  read  closely  we  see  how  carefully 
he  guarded  himself  against  direct  assault  upon  this 
or  any  other  established  institution.  Not  the 
name  "  monk  "  was  a  reproach,  but  the  name  "  bad 
monk."  He  even  goes  so  far  as  to  identify  himself 
with  the  clerical  order.  It  was  well  enough  to  fast 
or  even  to  use  images  and  relics,  so  long  as  one  saw 
through  the  forms  to  the  meaning  underneath  ;  but 
the  moment  a  man  found  himself  relying  upon  the 
forms,  no  matter  who  he  was,  pope,  priest,  or  lay- 
man, that  moment  he  was  in  danger. 

Erasmus  says  that  the  Enchiridion  attracted  little 
attention  at  first,  but  afterward  had  a  great  sale. 
We  can  well  believe  that  the  full  force  of  its  critic- 
ism was  not  felt  until  the  first  stirrings  of  the  Pro- 
testant Reformation  brought  men  sharply  face  to 
face  with  the  problems  it  had  outlined.  It  cannot 
be  called  precisely  a  controversial  book,  yet  the 
germs  of  the  bitterest  controversies  of  the  Reforma- 
tion time  are  contained  in  it.  Erasmus  professed 
the  utmost  reverence  for  the  existing  institutions  of 
the  Church,  and  there  is  nothing  in  his  later  life  to 
make  us  doubt  the  sincerity  of  this  profession.  He 
was  by  nature  averse  to  all  the  violence  and  confu- 
sion that  must  attend  any  great  social  change.  But 
it  was  clear  to  him  that  his  age  had  wandered  far 
from  the  ideals  of  the  founders  of  these  institutions. 
His  remedy  was  to  point  out  to  men  how  widely 


1503]     Enchiridion  Militis  Christiani      m 

they  had  erred  and  to  show  them  once  more  in 
plain  and  direct  language  the  true  foundations  of  the 
Christian  life. 

It  is  noticeable  that  with  all  his  protests  of  respect, 
Erasmus  nowhere  urges  the  appeal  to  the  existing 
order  in  the  Church  as  final.  Men  may  fast,  worship 
saints,  take  vows,  seek  absolution;  but  their  real 
salvation  is  to  be  found  in  none  of  these  things. 
As  this  little  book  went  out  into  the  world  in  the 
year  1503,  it  remained  to  be  seen  which  aspect  of 
its  teaching  would  prove  the  more  effectual,  whether 
its  real  meaning  would  penetrate  alike  to  friends  and 
enemies.  Some  light  on  this  point  may  be  gained 
from  a  letter '  of  Erasmus  written  in  1 5 1 8  to  his  friend 
Volzius  and  afterward  published  as  a  preface  to  a 
new  edition  of  the  Enchiridion.  In  this  letter  he 
says  that  his  work  was  criticised  as  unlearned,  be- 
cause it  did  not  use  the  quibbling  methods  of  the 
schools.  But  he  was  not  trying  "  to  train  men  for 
the  prize-ring  of  the  Sorbonne,  but  rather  for  the 
peace  which  belongs  to  the  Christian. ' '  There  is  no 
lack  of  books  on  theology ; 

"  there  are  as  many  commentaries  on  the  '  Sentences  '  of 
Petrus  Lombardus  as  there  are  theologians.  There  is  no 
end  of  little  summas,  which  mix  up  one  thing  with  another 
over  and  over  again  and  after  the  manner  of  apothecaries 
fabricate  and  refabricate  old  things  from  new,  new  from 
old,  one  from  many,  and  many  from  one.  The  result  is 
that  there  are  so  many  books  about  right  living  that  no 
one  can  ever  live  long  enough  to  read  them.  As  if  a 
doctor  should  prescribe  for  a  man  in  a  dangerous  illness 

'iii.',  337. 


112  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1503- 

that  he  should  read  the  books  of  Jacobus  k  Partibus  and 
all  the  likes  of  them  and  there  he  would  find  out  how  to 
mend  his  health." 

There  were  books  enough,  Heaven  knew!  but  not 
life  enough  to  read  them,  and  this  multitude  of 
quarrelling  doctors  were  only  obscuring  the  true  art 
of  living,  which  Christ  meant  to  make  plain  and 
simple  to  all.  These  so-called  philosophers  are  ob- 
stacles, not  helps,  to  the  true  Christian  life. 

"  They  could  never  have  enough  of  discussing  in  what 
words  they  ought  to  speak  of  Christ,  as  if  they  were  deal- 
ing with  some  horrid  demon,  who  would  bring  destruction 
upon  them  if  they  failed  to  invoke  him  in  proper  terms, 
instead  of  with  a  most  gentle  Saviour,  who  asks  nothing 
of  us  but  a  pure  and  upright  life." 

Erasmus  makes  here  the  very  practical  and  con- 
structive suggestion,  that 

"  a  commission  of  pious  and  learned  men  should  bring 
together  into  a  compendium  from  the  purest  sources  of 
the  gospels  and  the  apostles  and  from  their  most  approved 
commentators,  the  whole  philosophy  of  Christ,  with  as 
much  simplicity  as  learning,  as  much  brevity  as  clear- 
ness. What  pertains  to  the  faith  should  be  treated  in  as 
few  articles  as  possible;  what  belongs  to  life,  also  in  few 
words,  and  so  put  that  men  may  know  that  the  yoke  of 
Christ  is  easy  and  pleasant,  not  cruel;  that  they  have 
been  given  fathers,  not  tyrants;  pastors,  not  robbers; 
called  to  salvation,  not  betrayed  into  slavery. 

"  Now  then,"  he  says,  "  that  is  precisely  the  purpose 
I  was  filled  with  when  I  wrote  my  Enchiridion.     I  saw 


1503]     Enchiridion  Militis  Christianl      113 

the  multitude  of  Christians  corrupted,  not  only  in  their 
passions,  but  also  in  their  opinions.  I  saw  those  who 
professed  to  be  pastors  and  doctors  generally  abusing 
the  name  of  Christ  to  their  own  profit, — to  say  nothing 
of  those  at  whose  nod  the  affairs  of  men  are  tossed  hither 
and  thither,  but  at  whose  vices,  open  as  they  are,  it  is 
hardly  permitted  to  raise  a  groan.  And  in  such  a  turmoil 
of  affairs,  in  such  corruption  of  the  world,  in  such  a  con- 
flict of  human  opinions,  whither  was  one  to  flee,  except 
to  the  sacred  anchor  of  the  Gospel  teaching  ? 

"  I  would  not  defile  the  divine  philosophy  of  Christ 
with  human  decrees.  Let  Christ  remain  what  he  is,  the 
centre,  with  certain  circles  about  him.  I  would  not 
move  the  centre  from  its  place.  Let  those  who  are 
nearest  Christ,  priests,  bishops,  cardinals,  popes,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  follow  the  Lamb  wherever  he  goes,  embrace 
that  most  perfect  part  and,  so  far  as  may  be,  hand  it  on 
to  the  next  in  order.  Let  the  second  circle  contain 
temporal  princes,  whose  arms  and  whose  laws  are  in  the 
service  of  Christ,  ...  In  the  third  circle  let  us 
place  the  mass  of  the  people  as  the  dullest  part  of  this 
world,  but  yet,  dull  as  it  is,  a  member  of  the  body  of 
Christ.  For  the  eyes  are  not  the  only  members  of  the 
body,  but  also  the  hands  and  the  feet.  And  for  these 
we  ought  to  have  consideration,  so  that,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, they  may  be  called  to  those  things  which  are  nearer 
to  Christ, — for  in  this  body  he  who  is  now  but  a  foot  may 
come  to  be  an  eye.  ,  .  .  So  a  mark  is  to  be  set  be- 
fore all,  toward  which  they  may  strive,  and  there  is  but 
one  mark,  namely  Christ  and  his  pure  doctrine.  But  if, 
instead  of  a  heavenly  mark  you  set  an  earthly  one,  there 
will  be  nothing  towards  which  one  may  properly  strive. 
That  which  is  highest  is  meant  for  all,  that  we  may  at 
least  attain  to  some  moderate  height.     .     .     .     The  per- 

8 


TI4  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1503- 

fection  of  Christ  is  in  our  motives,  not  in  the  form  of  our 
life,  in  our  minds,  not  in  dress  or  food.  There  are  some 
among  the  monks  whom  the  third  circle  would  scarcely 
accept, — I  am  speaking  now  of  good  ones,  but  weak. 
There  are  some,  even  among  men  twice  married,  whom 
Christ  would  think  worthy  of  the  first  circle.  It  is  no 
offence  to  any  particular  form  of  life  if  what  is  best  and 
most  perfect  is  put  forth  as  a  standard  for  all.  Every 
kind  of  life  has  its  own  peculiar  dangers  and  he  who 
shows  thera  up  makes  no  reflection  upon  the  institution, 
but  is  rather  defending  its  cause." 

This  highly  characteristic  letter  closes  with  a  re- 
view of  the  early  history  and  purpose  of  the  monastic 
orders  and  emphasises  still  further  Erasmus'  point 
that  he  has  no  quarrel  with  monks  as  such,  but  only 
in  so  far  as  they  set  more  value  upon  forms  than 
upon  the  true  following  of  Christ. 

"  I  would  have  all  Christians  so  live  that  those  who 
alone  are  now  called  '  religious  '  should  seem  very  little 
religious — and  that  is  true  to-day  in  not  a  few  cases;  for 
why  should  we  hide  what  is  open  to  all  ? " 

His  picture  of  the  true  monks,  as  Benedict  and 
Bernard  would  have  had  them,  must  have  seemed 
Utopian  indeed.  They  were  merely  voluntary  com- 
munities of  friends,  living 

"  in  the  liberty  of  the  spirit  according  to  the  Gospel  law, 
and  under  certain  necessary  rules  about  dress  and  food. 
They  hated  riches,  they  avoided  all  oflfices,  even  those 
of  the  church;  they  laboured  with  their  hands,  so  that 
they  might  not  only  be  no  burden  upon  others,  but  might 


I 


1503]      Enchiridion  Militis  Christiani      115 

have  a  surplus  to  relieve  distress;  they  dwelt  upon  mount- 
ain-peaks, in  swamps,  and  sandy  deserts." 

Now  let  whoever  will  compare  all  this  with  the 
monks  of  his  own  day  ! 

Things  had  moved  very  rapidly  in  the  fifteen  years 
since  Erasmus  had  written  the  Enchiridion,  but  the 
tone  of  this  defence  is  quite  in  harmony  with  that  of 
the  book  itself.  It  is  not  loose  and  vulgar  abuse 
of  the  "  religious  "  orders,  but  rather  a  calm  and 
consistent  appeal  to  the  one  true  standard  of  Christ- 
ian life,  namely  to  the  teaching  and  example  of 
Christ  himself. 

This  is  the  great  interest  of  this  little  manual  of 
the  Christian  gentleman.  It  shows  Erasmus  as  a 
clear-eyed  critic  of  existing  institutions,  rather  than 
as  a  man  who  had  any  definite  scheme  of  reform  to 
propose.  Throughout  the  book  there  is  but  one 
concrete  proposition :  that  a  commission  be  ap- 
pointed— by  whom  is  not  suggested — to  reduce  the 
substance  of  Christian  faith  and  morals  to  such 
simple  form  that  it  could  be  understood  by  every- 
one. A  very  pretty  and  amiable  suggestion  indeed, 
but  hardly  suited  to  a  moment  when  the  irreconcil- 
able nature  of  the  great  conflict  between  a  religious 
system  founded  upon  formalism  and  the  simple 
morality  of  the  Gospel  was  beginning  to  be  more 
and  more  clearly  felt. 

In  the  year  following  the  publication  of  the 
Enchiridion,  while  Erasmus  was  quietly  going  on 
with  his  studies,  living  where  he  could  find  a  com- 
fortable place    for  the   moment,  he  was   suddenly 


ii6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1504- 

called  upon  to  perform  one  of  the  very  few  public 
functions  of  his  life.  Philip,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
son  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  and  administrator  of 
the  government  in  the  Low  Countries,  was  returning 
from  a  journey  to  Spain  and  France  in  the  year  1504 
and  was  to  be  received  at  Brussels  with  all  fitting 
demonstrations  of  loyalty  and  affection.  Among 
other  things  the  community  desired  to  show  its  ap- 
preciation of  learning  by  inflicting  upon  the  young 
man  a  public  oration  in  as  good  style  as  they  could 
pay  for. 

Erasmus  was  chosen  for  this  task  and  fulfilled  it 
with  success  if  not  with  enthusiasm.  His  extrava- 
gant phrases  of  laudation,  in  which  the  prince  is 
credited  with  almost  more  than  human  qualities, 
cannot  interest  us.  They  are  purely  conventional 
and  can  convince  us  neither  of  the  prince's  merit 
nor  of  the  orator's  insincerity.  More  important  for 
us  is  the  evidence  that  even  through  such  formal 
surroundings,  the  originality  of  the  man  cannot  fail 
to  make  itself  here  and  there  felt. 

The  oration  was  delivered  in  the  ducal  palace  at 
Brussels.  In  its  printed  form  it  fills  over  twenty 
folio  pages  and  can  hardly  have  occupied  less  than 
three  or  four  hours  in  delivery.  One  would  imagine 
that  even  the  divine  virtues  of  the  young  prince 
could  hardly  have  kept  up  his  spirits  while  these 
ponderous  paragraphs  were  being  read  to  him,  and  it 
is  certainly  to  be  hoped  that  he  was  let  off  with  an 
abbreviated  edition.  He  may  well  have  yawned 
over  the  tedious  narrative  of  his  journey  to  Spain 
and  his  magnificent  reception  in  France,  but  he  was, 


I504]  Philip  of  Burgundy  117 

probably  seldom  privileged  to  hear  such  sound  in- 
struction as  Erasmus  dealt  out  to  him  from  point  to 
point  of  his  discourse.* 

"  Even  to-day,"  said  the  orator,  "  there  are  not  want- 
ing those  who  croak  into  the  ears  of  kings  such  stuff  as 
this: — '  Why  should  you  hesitate  ?  Have  you  forgotten 
that  you  are  a  prince  ?  Is  not  your  pleasure  the  law  ? 
It  is  the  part  of  kings  to  live  not  by  rule  but  by  the  lust 
of  their  own  hearts.  Whatever  any  of  your  subjects  has, 
that  belongs  to  you.  It  is  yours  to  give  life  and  to  take 
it  away;  yours  to  make  or  to  ruin  the  fortunes  of  whom 
you  will.  Others  are  praised  or  blamed,  but  to  you 
everything  is  honourable,  everything  praiseworthy.  Will 
you  listen  to  those  philosophers  and  scholastics  ?  .  .  .  . 
Seal  your  ears  with  wax,  most  noble  Duke,  against  the 
fatal  song  of  these  Sirens;  like  Homer's  Ulysses,  or 
rather,  like  Virgil's  ^neas,  steer  your  course  so  far  from 
their  coast  that  the  poison  of  their  seductive  voices  may 
not  touch  the  soundness  of  your  mind." 

"  By  what  names  we  call  you,  it  matters  little  to  you, 
for  you  do  not  think  yourself  to  be  other  than  what 
Homer  calls  the  '  shepherd  of  the  people  '  or  Plato  its 
'  guardian.*  You  have  discovered  a  new  way  to  increase 
the  revenues  of  your  nobles  and  of  yourself:  by  dimin- 
ishing expense  instead  of  increasing  taxes.  Oh !  wonder- 
ful soul!  you  deprive  yourself  that  your  subjects  may 
abound ;  you  deny  yourself  that  there  may  be  the-  more 
for  the  multitude.  You  keep  watch,  that  we  may  sleep 
in  safety.  You  are  wearied  with  continual  anxieties, 
that  your  own  may  have  peace.  You  wear  your  prince- 
dom, not  for  yourself,  but  for  your  land." 

•  iv,,  529- F. 


ii8  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1504- 

"  The  Astrologers  declare  that  in  certain  years  there 
appear  long-tailed  stars  which  bring  mighty  convulsions 
into  human  affairs,  touching  both  the  minds  and  the 
bodies  of  men  with  fatal  force  and  terribly  affecting 
rivers,  seas,  earth,  and  air.  But  no  comet  can  arise  so 
fatal  to  the  earth  as  a  bad  prince,  nor  any  planet  so 
healthful  as  a  blameless  ruler." 

The  most  striking  part  of  the  panegyric,  however, 
is  that  which  compares  the  virtues  of  peace  with 
those  of  war.  Here  Erasmus  makes  his  first  great 
declaration  of  principles  as  to  the  absolute  wicked- 
ness and  folly  of  war  and  henceforth,  during  his 
whole  life,  he  never  failed  to  repeat  and  to  emphasise 
them.  We  cannot  account  for  this  consistent  atti- 
tude on  any  theory  of  personal  timidity  or  even  on 
the  ground  that  the  scholar's  work  demanded  peace 
for  its  full  development.  This  latter  argument  we 
do  find  in  Erasmus,  but  it  might  equally  well  be 
turned  in  favour  of  war  as  furnishing  those  stirring 
episodes  and  kindling  that  enthusiasm  for  heroic 
deeds  which  have  always  been  inspiring  to  literary 
genius.  Erasmus  was  sincerely  and  profoundly  im- 
pressed with  the  enormous  waste  of  energy  which 
war  seemed  to  imply  and  believed  with  all  his  heart 
that  the  motives  leading  to  it  were  almost  invariably 
bad.  In  a  day  when  the  peoples  of  Europe  were 
continually  involved  in  wars  and  rumours  of  wars,  it 
was  an  act  of  no  little  courage  for  this  solitary 
scholar  to  stand  before  a  great  assembly  of  princes 
and  plead  the  sacred  cause  of  peace. 

Considerable  ingenuity  is  shown  in  his  clever  reply 
to  the  argument  that  peace  is  enervating  to  the 


I504]  Philip  of  Burgundy  119 

ruler.  Bravery,  Erasmus  says,  is  far  easier  in  war, 
for  we  see  that  a  very  poor  kind  of  man  may  show 
it  there ;  but  to  govern  the  spirit,  to  control  desire, 
to  put  a  bridle  upon  greed,  to  restrain  the  temper, 
— that  kind  of  courage  is  peculiar  to  the  wise  and 
good.  Of  all  these  peaceful  virtues  he  declares 
Philip  to  be  the  model,  and  it  is  of  little  account  to 
us  whether  this  praise  be  well  or  ill  applied.  Our 
interest  is  in  the  growth  of  Erasmus'  own  ideas  and 
the  part  they  had  in  fitting  him  for  the  work  he  was 
to  do.  His  description  of  the  miseries  of  war  is  a 
really  noble  piece  of  eloquence  and  reason. 

We  shall  have  occasion  again  to  refer  to  Erasmus* 
peace  propaganda.  Enough  here  that  he  had  the 
courage  to  speak  his  mind  under  circumstances 
which  might  well  have  led  a  less  manly  orator  to 
dwell  upon  the  glory  and  profit  of  a  warlike  policy. 
His  listener,  involved  as  he  was  at  that  moment  in 
as  tangled  a  web  of  negotiations  as  ever  European 
diplomacy  had  yet  woven,  must  have  smiled  in  his 
sleeve  at  this  harmless  pedantry  of  the  worthy 
scholar.  Certainly  no  action  of  his  life  up  to  that 
time  or  in  the  short  years  left  to  him  can  indicate 
any  preference  for  peace  for  its  own  sake. 

More  grateful,  doubtless,  to  the  princely  ears  were 
Erasmus*  prognostications  of  his  future.  He  had 
no  faith  in  astrology,  but  he  seemed  to  see  in  the 
evident  trend  of  European  affairs  an  accumulation 
of  powers  in  the  hand  of  duke  Philip,  which  was  to 
be  realised  in  the  person  of  his  son  Charles.  The 
orator  lets  himself  go  in  laudation  of  Maximilian, 
Ferdinand,  Joanna,  and  Philip  himself,  with  confid- 


I20  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1504- 

ent  prediction  of  a  magnificent  future.  In  fact 
Maximilian's  career  was  a  series  of  brilliant  failures. 
Ferdinand  was  in  continual  dread  of  Philip  and 
often  in  open  hostility  with  him.  Joanna  was  al- 
ready showing  traces  of  that  hopeless  insanity, 
aggravated  it  was  said  by  the  cruel  frivolities  of 
Philip,  which  was  to  taint  the  house  of  Habsburg 
to  this  day.  Finally  Philip  was  to  die  of  disease 
within  two  years,  without  realising  any  of  the 
schemes  of  aggrandisement  to  which  his  life  was 
devoted. 

But  if  Erasmus'  prophecy  was  bad,  his  scheme  of 
princely  morals,  as  here  laid  down,  was  good,  and 
it  indicates  clearly  the  bent  of  his  serious  thought. 
A  man  with  his  sense  of  humour — in  other  words, 
with  his  common  sense — could  not  fail  to  see  the 
discrepancy  between  the  actual  Philip  and  the  being 
whom  he  had  here  depicted.  When  he  came  to 
publish  his  panegyric  he  found  it  necessary  to  de- 
fend himself  against  the  charge  of  falsehood.  In  a 
letter*  to  his  friend  Paludanus,  professor  of  rhetoric 
at  Louvain,  he  goes  at  considerable  length  into  the 
obligation  of  a  writer  of  such  things  to  tell  the  truth. 
He  supports  his  own  action  by  reference  to  classic 
panegyrists  and  lays  down  the  general  principle, 
that  one  can  do  more  to  help  a  prince  by  praising 
him  for  virtues  he  has  not,  than  by  blaming  him  for 
the  faults  he  has. 

"  Just,"  he  says,  "  as  the  best  of  physicians  declares 
to  his  patient  that  he  likes  his  colour  and  the  expression 

'iv.,  550. 


1504]  Philip  of  Burgundy  121 

of  his  face,  not  because  these  things  are  so,  but  that  he 
may  make  them  so.  Augustine,  so  they  say,  confesses 
that  he  told  many  a  lie  in  praise  of  emperors.  Paul  the 
apostle  himself  not  infrequently  employs  the  device  of 
pious  adulation,  praising  in  order  that  he  may  reform," 

The  panegyric  to  Philip,  in  its  published  form,  was 
dedicated  to  Nicholas  Ruterius,  bishop  of  Arras.  In 
the  dedicatory  letter  Erasmus  professes  that  this 
kind  of  writing  was  distasteful  to  him,  and  defends 
himself  again  by  the  reflection  that 

"  there  is  no  way  so  effectual  for  improving  a  prince,  as 
to  present  to  him,  under  the  form  of  praise,  the  model  of 
a  good  prince, — provided  only  that  you  ascribe  virtues 
to  him  and  take  faults  away  from  him  in  such  wise  that 
you  urge  him  to  the  one  and  warn  him  from  the  other." 

We  are  led  to  believe  that  Prince  Philip  was  gra- 
ciously pleased  to  approve  the  discourse  of  Erasmus. 
Doubtless  he  was  as  quick  as  the  orator  himself  to 
explain  it  in  a  Pickwickian  sense  wherever  it  verged 
too  closely  upon  unpleasant  facts.  He  gave  him  a 
handsome  present  and  is  said  to  have  offered  him 
a  place  in  his  service  which  Erasmus,  as  usual,  de- 
clined. 


CHAPTER  V 

RESIDENCE   IN   ITALY— THE   "  PRAISE   OF   FOLLY" 
1 506-1 509 

WE  have  already  noted  Erasmus*  often-ex- 
pressed desire  to  visit  Italy.  It  is  the  al- 
leged motive  of  his  begging  correspondence  with  the 
Marchioness  Anna  in  and  about  the  year  1500.  At 
that  time  he  professes  to  have  little  interest  in  Italy 
for  its  own  sake,  but  to  be  yielding  to  a  popular 
delusion  that  a  doctor's  degree  was  absolutely  indis- 
pensable to  a  scholarly  reputation  and  that  an  Italian 
doctorate  was  worth  more  than  any  other.  In  Eng- 
land he  is  quite  satisfied  that  he  has  done  just  as 
well  for  his  Greek  and  his  scholarly  advancement  in 
general  as  if  he  had  gone  to  Italy ;  yet  the  idea  of 
the  Italian  journey  seems  never  to  have  left  him. 
It  is  an  interesting  inquiry  precisely  what  the  real 
attraction  of  Italy  to  Erasmus  was. 

One  can  easily  draw  a  fancy  picture  of  what  ought 
to  have  attracted  him.  Italy  had  naturally  for  the 
scholar  of  the  Renaissance  a  double  interest,  first  as 
the  seat  of  ancient  Roman  culture,  and  again  as  the 
source  and  spring  of  that  modern  revival  in  which 
he  himself  formed  a  part.  It  might  well  appeal  to 
the  instinct  of  the  antiquarian  and  the  sight-seer, 


i5o6]  Residence  in  Italy  123 

eager  to  bring  visibly  before  himself  the  remains  of 
ancient  splendour,  the  living  and  vivid  reminders 
of  a  mighty  past.  He  might  hope  to  live  again  in 
the  charmed  atmosphere  of  Virgil  and  Horace,  to 
sit  amid  the  scenes  already  familiar  to  him  in  the 
glowing  pages  of  Cicero,  and  to  bring  into  his  mind 
some  more  adequate  understanding  of  the  vast 
achievements  he  had  read  of  in  the  pregnant  story 
of  Livy  or  of  Julius  Caesar. 

The  appeal  of  Italy,  in  short,  to  the  historical  im- 
agination is,  one  would  say,  perhaps  the  most  power- 
ful that  has  ever  come  to  a  scholar's  mind  from  that 
land  of  enchantment.  It  was  a  time,  too,  when 
men's  thoughts  and  activities  were  turning  eagerly 
to  all  that  side  of  the  new  classical  study.  For  a 
century  and  a  half,  ever  since  the  days  of  Petrarch 
and  Rienzi,  the  treasures  of  ancient  art,  Greek  as 
well  as  Roman,  had  been  brought  to  light,  gathered 
into  great  collections,  and  made  to  do  their  part  in 
the  education  of  Europe.  The  limits  of  the  Eternal 
City  had  been  turned  into  one  great  treasure-house 
of  precious  reminders  of  former  and  presages  of  a 
future  greatness.  The  visitor  to  Rome  or  to  Flor- 
ence might  study  from  the  originals  the  choicest 
forms  in  which  the  art  of  the  ancient  world  had  ex- 
pressed itself. 

It  is  hard  to  fancy  that  Erasmus,  in  his  thoughts 
of  Italy,  can  have  failed  to  be  drawn  by  the  an- 
ticipation of  living  thus  bodily  in  the  presence  of 
the  human  world  from  which  he  drew  his  literary 
inspiration  and  toward  which  all  his  serious  thought 
went  back  as  to  its  natural  source.     Yet  the  fact  is 


124  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

that  neither  in  the  anticipation  nor  in  the  reality  of 
his  Italian  journey  do  we  find  such  reference  to  these 
things  as  would  warrant  us  in  thinking  that  they 
formed  any  essential  part  of  his  ideas  about  Italy. 
That  sense  of  an  overwhelming  grandeur,  a  some- 
thing indescribably  greater  than  all  that  had  come 
since,  which  has  fallen  upon  so  many  an  Italian 
traveller,  seems  to  have  been  entirely  absent  in  his 
case.  When  Goethe  entered  Italy,  it  was  with 
bated  breath  and  reverent  awe  at  the  stupendous 
rernains  of  a  civilisation  whose  influence  was  even 
then  potent  in  the  lives  of  men.  So  far  as  Erasmus 
has  left  us  any  witness  of  himself  his  mind  was  oc- 
cupied solely  with  the  immediate  profit  of  the  mo- 
ment :  his  doctor's  degree,  his  new  publisher,  the 
petty  comforts  and  discomforts  of  daily  life. 

Still  more  curious  is  his  attitude  towards  that 
other  aspect  of  Italy  which  might  have  been  ex- 
pected to  impress  him  even  more.  As  a  man  of  the 
Renaissance  one  might  have  looked  to  find  Erasmus, 
even  before  his  departure,  in  correspondence  with 
some  of  the  lights  of  the  later  Italian  Humanism; 
yet,  so  far  as  we  know,  he  went  over  the  Alps  a 
stranger,  except  for  the  slight  -reputation  of  his  own 
writings,  and  chiefly  of  the  Adages.  The  enormous 
activity  of  all  those  great  producers  in  every  field 
of  art,  who  have  mg.de  the  turning-point  of  the 
fifteenth  to  the  sixteenth  century  one  of  the  great 
epochs  in  human  history,  seems  simply  to  have 
escaped  his  notice.  We  do  not  hear  of  it  as  attract- 
ing him  from  the  North ;  when  he  is  in  the  midst  of 
it,  it  finds  no  echo  in  his  correspondence,  and  when 


I 


I509]  Residence  in  Italy  125 

he  leaves  it,  there  is  nothing  in  his  later  writing  to 
show  that  it  had  greatly  affected  him.  With  the 
really  greatest  men  of  the  land  he  seems  not  to  have 
come  into  any  intimate  personal  relation,  and  he 
certainly  avoided  here,  as  he  had  always  done  else- 
where, any  complication  with  political  or  social 
movements  of  any  sort. 

Our  information  in  regard  to  the  Italian  journey 
and  residence  is  curiously  meagre.  In  the  great 
collection  of  Erasmus'  letters,  there  are  but  a  half- 
dozen  in  the  three  years  from  1506  to  1509.  M. 
Nolhac  '  has  published  four  others  written  by  Eras- 
mus to  Aldus,  his  printer,  but  these  latter  are  oc- 
cupied almost  wholly  with  unimportant  business 
details.  Four  of  the  former  group  are  written  from 
Paris  just  after  the  party  had  left  England  and  give 
us  only  some  scattered  hints  as  to  Erasmus*  depart- 
ure for  Italy. 

The  long-sought  opportunity  came  to  him  in  a 
form  which  he  had  once  vowed  he  would  never 
accept,  namely,  through  an  engagement  as  private 
tutor  to  the  two  sons  of  Battista  Boerio,  the 
Genoese  physician  of  King  Henry  VII.  Beatus 
takes  some  pains  to  tell  us  that  Erasmus  was  not 
to  teach  these  youths,  but  it  is  not  quite  clear  what 
else  his  function  was.  They  had  an  attendant 
{curator)  named  Clyston,  whom  Erasmus  describes 
in  one  of  these  early  letters  as  the  most  pleasant, 
lovable,  and  faithful  fellow  in  the  world.  The  lads, 
too,   were,   he  says,   most   modest,   teachable,  and 

'  P.  de  Nolhac,  J^rasme  en  Italie,  Atude  sur  un  episode  de  la  Re- 
naissance, avec  douze  lettres  inidites  d'£rasme,  1888. 


126  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

studious.  He  has  great  hopes  that  they  will  fulfil 
the  expectations  of  their  father  and  reward  his  own 
pains.  The  voyage  across  the  Channel  was  a  dread- 
ful one,  lasting  four  days,  so  that  a  report  spread  in 
Paris  that  they  were  lost,  and  Erasmus  appeared 
among  his  friends,  he  says,  like  one  risen  from  the 
dead.  The  result  was  that  he  was  taken  with  an 
illness,  which  he  describes  so  exactly  as  to  leave  no 
doubt  that  he  had  a  good  clear  case  of  the  mumps. 
From  Paris  the  journey  was  by  way  of  Lyons  and 
the  western  Alps.  We  have  a  brief  account  of  it  in 
that  singular  hodge-podge,  the  catalogue  of  his 
writings,  made  by  Erasmus  eighteen  years  afterward 
and  sent  to  John  Botzheim  of  Constance.  The  story 
of  the  journey  there  given  is  only  incidental  to  the 
account  of  a  little  poetical  dissertation  '  on  the  ap- 
proach of  old  age  which  he  wrote  on  the  way  and 
sent  back  to  Paris  to  his  medical  friend,  William 
Cop.  Erasmus  was  only  about  forty  years  old,  but 
he  felt  himself  getting  on  in  life  and  declares  here 
his  determination  to  give  up  the  charms  of  pure 
literature  and  devote  the  rest  of  his  days  to  Christ 
alone.  Most  serious  men  of  the  Renaissance  from 
Petrarch  and  Boccaccio  down  had  had  their  moments 
of  self :reproach  for  their  over-devotion  to  the  heathen 
Muses  and  perhaps  Erasmus'  feeling  on  this  point 
was  as  sincere  as  that  of  his  colleagues.  Surely  his 
life  up  to  this  time  had  not  been  so  frivolously  class- 
ical as  to  cause  him  any  deserved  regrets.  He  re- 
presents this  poem  as  written  to  relieve  his  mind  from 
the  unpleasantness  of  his  companions,  especially  the 

'  Carmen  equestre  velpotius  Alpestre,  iv.,  755. 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  127 

distinguished  Clyston,  who  was  now  already  as 
dreadful  a  being  as  a  few  weeks  before  he  had  been 
charming.  While  Clyston  was  alternately  brawling 
and  drinking  with  an  English  man-at-arms  whom 
the  king  had  specially  deputed  for  their  protection, 
Erasmus  was,  he  says,  devoting  himself  to  poetical 
reflection  and  composition.  Another  reference  to 
this  journey  is  probably  found  in  the  well-known 
colloquy  "  Divcrsorta,"  in  which  one  of  the  speak- 
ers describes  the  charms  of  the  French  inns,  their 
cleanliness,  their  good  wines  and  cookery,  and  the 
great  efforts  of  the  landladies  and  their  fair  attend- 
ants to  make  things  pleasant  for  the  traveller.  All 
this  is  then  made  the  more  effective  by  a  counter- 
description  of  the  swinish  customs  of  the  inns  in 
Germany.'  Again  we  have  an  illustration  of  Eras- 
mus' aesthetic  indifference.  It  is  not  a  sufficient 
answer  to  say  that  joy  in  outward  nature  is  a  purely 
recent  emotion.  The  whole  art  of  the  Renaissance 
is  the  witness  that  men  had  long  since  escaped  from 
this  form  of  mediaeval  bondage  and  were  quite  able 
to  understand  that  they  were  living  in  a  good  world, 
made  for  their  delight  and  not  wholly  under  the 
dominion  of  Satan.  A  journey  on  horseback  across 
the  Alps!  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  this  prince  of 
learned  men,  who  could  discourse  so  eloquently 
upon  every  human  feeling,  had  not  one  emotion  be- 
yond a  desire  to  get  across  as  soon  as  possible  and  a 
lively  sense  of  the  comforts  and  discomforts  of  his 
inns. 

If  a  doctor's  degree  was  one  of  Erasmus'  objects 

'  See  page  226. 


1 


128  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

in  coming  to  Italy,  he  certainly  lost  no  time  in 
fulfilling  it.  The  degree  was  conferred  on  him  at 
Turin  September  4,  1506.*  Erasmus  took  especial 
pains  to  state  in  at  least  four  letters  that  he  took 
this  degree  to  please  his  friends,  not  himself;  but 
made  no  objection  to  its  immediate  use  in  his  pub- 
lications. From  Turin  he  went  on  to  Bologna  where 
he  proposed  to  settle  for  his  own  studies,  as  well  as 
for  those  of  his  young  pupils.  The  country  was  in 
a  distressing  state  of  confusion  and  that  of  a  kind 
especially  offensive  to  Erasmus.  War  was  bad 
enough  at  the  best,  but  a  papal  war  was  a  scandal 
to  the  name  of  Christianity,  and  a  fighting  pope  was 
to  him  a  monster  of  iniquity.  He  held  his  pen 
quietly  enough  at  the  time,  but  the  impression  of 
this  pope,  Julius  II.,  leading  a  campaign  for  the  re- 
covery of  Bologna  from  the  French  never  quite  left 
him.  It  served  him  for  a  text  whenever  he  felt  free 
to  speak  his  mind  on  the  subject  of  war  or  on  the 
decline  of  virtue  in  the  church.  A  turn  in  affairs 
gave  Bologna  to  Julius  II.  and  furnished  to  Erasmus 
the  opportunity  of  seeing  the  triumphal  entry  of  the 
pope  into  his  city.  He  simply  reports  the  event  to 
Servatius,  his  old  comrade  at  Steyn,  without  men- 
tioning that  he  had  witnessed  it,  and  only  long  after- 
ward casually  refers  to  his  presence,  in  the  course  of 
a  formal  defence  against  the  charge  of  abusing  the 
papacy.  _ 

"  In  the  passage     ...     I  compare  the  triumphal 
entries  {triumphos)  which,  in  my  presence,   Julius  II 


'  See  the  diploma  in  W.  Vischer,  Erasmiana,  Basel,  1876. 


i 


I509]  Residence  in  Italy  129 

made  first  at  Bologna  and  afterwards  at  Rome,  with  the 
majesty  of  the  apostles  who  converted  the  world  by 
divine  truth  and  who  so  abounded  in  miracles  that  the 
sick  were  healed  by  their  very  shadow,  and  I  give  the 
preference  to  this  apostolic  splendour;  yet  I  say  nothing 
abusive  against  those  [other]  triumphs,  although  to  speak 
frankly  I  gazed  upon  them  not  without  a  silent  groan," 

Two  little  notes  to  Servatius  at  this  time  are  quite 
in  the  usual  tone  of  Erasmian  discontent.  He  says 
that  his  principal  object  in  coming  to  Italy  was  to 
study  Greek  but  ''jatnfrigent  studia,  fervent  bella  " 
"  studies  are  cold,  but  wars  are  hot," — he  will  en- 
deavour to  fly  back  again  very  soon  and  hopes  to 
see  his  friend  the  following  summer.  While  wars 
are  planning  study  takes  a  holiday.  He  makes  an 
identical  promise  to  another  friend  and  was  prob- 
ably quite  sincere  in  fancying  that  Italy,  like  every 
other  place  he  had  tried,  was  a  failure.  Evidently 
he  was  in  trouble  about  his  pupils.  Writing  to  one 
of  them  twenty-five  years  afterward  '  he  says : 

"  it  was  the  fault  of  that  fellow,  whom  you  nickname 
the  '  scarabeus, '  not  only  that  I  had  to  leave  you  sooner 
than  I  had  intended,  but  that  the  pleasure  of  our  com- 
panionship was  so  embittered  that  if  I  had  not  been 
kept  by  a  sense  of  duty,  I  could  not  have  endured  that 
monster  for  a  month.  I  have  often  wondered  that  your 
cautious  father  could  have  been  so  thoughtless  as  to 
intrust  his  most  precious  treasures  to  a  man  who  was 
scarce  fit  to  keep  swine,  nay,  who  was  of  such  feeble 
mind  that  he  rather  needed  a  keeper  himself," 

Mii.*,  1397. 
9 


I30  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

The  whole  affair  is  almost  an  echo  of  the  trouble 
with  the  "  old  man  "  at  Paris  and  would  be  too 
trifling  for  notice  were  it  not  almost  the  only  inci- 
dent in  connection  with  Erasmus'  residence  of  more 
than  a  year  at  Bologna  which  has  come  down  to  us. 
Of  course  the  climate  was  bad  and  especially  un- 
suited  to  his  requirements. 

The  summer  of  1507  found  Erasmus  still  at  Bo- 
logna. It  was  an  exceptionally  hot  season — so  he 
says — and  the  plague  broke  out  with  violence.  It 
is  apropos  of  this  plague  and  an  incident  which  he 
relates  in  connection  with  it,  that  we  come  once 
more  to  the  famous  letter,  mentioned  early  in  our 
narrative,'  in  which  Erasmus  begs  to  be  released 
from  the  obligation  of  wearing  the  monastic  dress. 
The  letter  is  addressed  to  Lambertus  Grunnius,  a 
papal  secretary  at  Rome,  and  contains,  by  way  of 
introduction,  that  long  series  of  details  about  the 
compulsory  entrance  into  the  monastery  of  a  youth 
called  Florentius,  which  has  been  generally  ac- 
cepted as  a  truthful  narrative  of  the  writer's  own 
experience.  We  have  already  followed  the  indica- 
tions of  this  letter  with  some  care  down  to  the 
point  where  Erasmus  was  safely  invested  with  the 
monastic  garb  and  had  made  up  his  mind  to  make 
the  best  of  it.  At  this  point,  with  one  of  those 
jumps  so  common  in  his  style,  he  comes  to  the  time 
of  his  Italian  visit  and  continues: 

"  Some  time  afterward  it  happened  that  he  went  into 
a  far  country  for  the  purpose  of  study.     There,  accord- 

'  See  Introduction. 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  131 

ing  to  the  French  custom,  he  wore  a  linen  scarf  above 
his  gown,  supposing  that  this  was  not  unusual  in  that 
country.'  But  from  this  he  twice  was  in  danger  of  his 
life,  for  the  physicians  there  who  serve  during  a  plague, 
wear  a  white  linen  scarf  on  their  left  shoulder,  so  that  it 
hangs  down  in  front  and  behind,  and  in  this  way  they 
are  easily  recognised  and  avoided  by  the  passers-by. 
Yet,  unless  they  go  about  by  unfrequented  ways  they 
would  be  stoned  by  those  who  meet  them,  for  such  is  the 
horror  of  death  among  those  people,  that  they  go  wild  at 
the  very  odour  of  incense  because  it  is  burned  at  funerals. 
At  one  time  when  Florentius  was  going  to  visit  a  learned 
friend,  two  blackguards  fell  upon  him  with  murderous 
cries  and  drawn  swords  and  would  have  killed  him,  if  a 
lady  fortunately  passing  had  not  explained  to  them  that 
this  was  the  dress  of  a  churchman  and  not  of  a  doctor. 
Still  they  ceased  not  to  rage  and  did  not  sheathe  their 
swords  until  he  had  pounded  on  the  door  of  a  house 
near  by  and  so  got  in. 

"  At  another  time  he  was  going  to  visit  certain  country- 
men of  his  when  a  mob  with  sticks  and  stones  suddenly 
got  together  and  urged  each  other  on  with  furious  shouts 
of  '  Kill  the  dog!  Kill  the  dog!  '  Meanwhile  a  priest 
came  up  who  only  laughed  and  said  in  Latin  in  a  low 
voice:  'Asses!  Asses!'  They  kept  on  with  their  tumult, 
but  as  a  young  man  of  elegant  appearance  and  wearing 
a  purple  cloak  came  out  of  a  house,  Florentius  ran  to 
him  as  to  an  altar  of  safety,  for  he  was  totally  ignorant  of 
the  vulgar  tongue  and  was  only  wondering  what  they 
wanted  of  him.  '  One  thing  is  certain,'  said  the  young 
man:  '  if  you  don't  lay  oJEf  this  scarf,  you  '11  some  day 


'  In  another  place  he  says  that  he  changed  his  dress  in  Italy  to  con- 
form to  the  custom  of  the  country,  iii.,  1527. 


132  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

get  stoned;  I  have  warned  you,  and  now  look  out  for 
yourself.'  So,  without  laying  aside  his  scarf,  he  concealed 
it  under  his  upper  garment." 

Such  is  the  cock-and-bull  story  with  which  Eras- 
mus, we  know  not  how  many  years  later,  amused 
the  excellent  Grunnius  as  a  preface  to  his  petition 
for  a  papal  dispensation  from  the  duty  of  wearing 
the  monastic  dress.  It  is  too  silly  even  for  Mr. 
Drummond,  who  very  properly  says  that  it  is  quite 
too  much  to  believe  either  that  Erasmus  would  be 
in  a  plague-stricken  city  when  he  could  get  out  of 
it,  or  that  any  Italian  could  be  so  blind  as  not  to 
know  a  monk  from  a  doctor!  Certainly  Erasmus 
would  never  wait  to  be  pounded  in  the  street  before 
finding  out  what  dress  he  might  safely  wear.  The 
reply  of  Grunnius  shows  how  the  whole  matter 
looked  at  Rome. 

"  My  dearest  Erasmus  :  I  never  undertook  any 
commission  more  gladly  than  the  one  you  have  intrusted 
to  me  and  scarcely  ever  succeeded  in  one  more  to  my  own 
mind.  For  I  was  moved  not  so  much  by  my  friendship 
for  you,  strong  as  that  is,  as  by  the  undeserved  misfor- 
tune of  Florentius.  Your  letter  I  read  from  beginning 
to  end  to  the  pope  in  the  presence  of  several  cardinals 
and  men  of  the  highest  standing.  The  most  holy  father 
was  extremely  delighted  with  your  style  and  you  would 
hardly  believe  how  hot  he  was  against  those  man-stealers ; 
for  greatly  as  he  favours  true  piety,  by  so  much  the  more 
does  he  hate  those  who  are  filling  the  world  with  wretched 
or  wicked  monks  to  the  great  injury  of  the  Christian  faith. 
'  Christ,'  he  says,  '  loves  piety  of  the  heart,  not  work- 


i5oq]  Residence  in  Italy  i33 

houses  for  slaves.'  He  has  ordered  your  permit  to  be 
made  out  at  once  and  gratis  too.  .  .  .  Farewell, 
and  give  Florentius,  whom  I  regard  as  I  do  yourself,  an 
affectionate  greeting  from  me." 

However  much  of  truth  or  of  fiction  there  may 
have  been  in  this  famous  letter,  we  may  be  tolerably 
sure  that  Erasmus  thought  of  it  very  much  as  he 
would  of  his  Colloquies,  as  a  piece  of  literary  work 
with  a  purpose  at  the  bottom  of  it.  At  the  time 
he  sent  it,  perhaps  15 14,  his  views  were  well  known 
to  the  papal  circle,  and  the  abuse  of  monks  was  far 
from  unwelcome  to  the  "  enlightened  "  views  of  a 
monarchy  as  worldly  as  any  in  all  Europe.  Doubt- 
less Erasmus  knew  his  Rome  well  enough  before  he 
ventured  to  send  such  a  fulmination  as  this  into  the 
midst  of  it. 

Of  his  other  occupations  at  Bologna  we  know 
little.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a  regular 
student  at  the  famous  university,  but  rather  to  have 
worked  by  himself  and  to  have  got  what  help  he 
could  from  a  Greek  teacher  named  Bombasius,  with 
whom  he  had  later  some  correspondence.* 

"  I  never  passed  a  more  disagreeable  year,"  he 
said  long  afterward ;  but  we  have  learned  the  form- 
ula by  this  time  and  could  hardly  expect  any  other 

'  Beatus  Rhenanus,  in  his  brief  summary  of  Erasmus'  life,  says : 
"  With  the  exception  of  the  rudiments,  he  may  truly  be  said  to  have 
been  self-taught.  For  the  journey  into  Italy  .  .  .  was  under- 
taken for  the  sake  of  visiting  that  famous  laud,  not  to  take  advantage 
of  the  professors  there.  At  Bologna  he  heard  no  one  of  the  public 
lecturers,  but,  satisfied  with  the  friendship  of  Paulus  Bombasius 
...     he  devoted  himself  to  his  studies  at  home." 


134  Desiderius  Erasmus  t^so^- 

opinion  from  him  of  a  year  in  which  he  had  reached 
the  goal  of  his  desires,  was  free  from  all  burdens 
except  the  oversight  of  two  excellent  pupils,  was  at 
one  of  the  principal  seats  of  learning,  in  as  good 
health  as  usual  and  working  away  at  several  pieces 
of  composition  which  he  had  undertaken  of  his  own 
free  choice.  It  is  as  certain  that  this  was  a  profit- 
able year  to  Erasmus  as  it  is  that  he  profited  by 
those  early  monastic  years  of  which  he  affected  later 
to  have  only  the  gloomiest  recollections. 

If  any  proof  of  this  were  wanting  it  would  be 
found  in  the  earliest  acquaintance  of  Erasmus 
with  the  famous  Venetian  printer  and  publisher, 
Aldus  Manutius,  which  begins  at  the  close  of  the 
year  at  Bologna  and  was  to  continue  for  many  years 
to  the  great  pleasure  and  profit  of  both  parties. 
Erasmus'  first  request  to  Aldus,  introduced  by 
plentiful  compliments  upon  his  work,  is  that  he  will 
undertake  to  reprint  the  translation  of  two  tragedies 
of  Euripides  which  had  already  been  published  by 
Badius  at  Paris.  That  unlucky  publisher,  it  seems, 
had  offered  to  make  a  second  and  better  edition, 
but  Erasmus  confides  to  Aldus  his  dread  that  Badius 
would  only  patch  up  old  errors  with  new  ones,  and 
says ' : 

"  I  should  feel  that  my  productions  were  on  the  way 
to  immortality  if  they  should  see  the  light  by  the  aid  of 
your  types,  especially  those  small  ones,  the  most  tasteful 
of  all.  Let  it  be  so  done  that  the  volume  shall  be  very 
small  and  let  the  thing  be  put  through  with  very  slight 

*  Nolhac,  £rasme  en  Italic,  Ep.  i. 


ALDV5PIV5-  MANVTIVS-  Ri 


L 


m 


ALDUS  P.   MANUTIU8. 

FROM    AN    OLD    PRINT. 


I509]  Residence  in  Italy  135 

expense.  If  it  shall  seem  good  to  you  to  undertake  the 
business,  I  will  furnish  gratis  the  corrected  manuscript 
which  I  am  sending  by  this  messenger  and  will  only  ask 
for  a  few  copies  to  give  to  my  friends. ' ' 

He  urges  Aldus  to  haste  because  he  may  have  to 
leave  Italy  very  soon. 

Everything  thus  points  to  an  entire  absence  of 
plan  in  Erasmus'  mind.  His  only  fixed  intention 
was  to  go  to  Rome  at  Christmas,  as  he  informs 
Aldus  in  his  next  letter.  The  great  publisher  had 
evidently  agreed  to  print  the  tragedies  and  had 
made  certain  suggestions  in  regard  to  readings, 
which  indicate  at  once  how  much  more  than  a  mere 
printer  or  publisher  he  was.  Erasmus  replies  with 
his  own  views  on  the  passages  in  question  and  with 
very  warm  words  of  admiration  for  Aldus.  He 
wants  these  plays,  he  says,  as  New  Year  gifts  to  his 
learned  friends  at  Bologna,  and  these  include  "  all 
who  either  know  or  profess  the  classic  literature." 
At  Rome,  also,  he  will  want  to  have  some  little  work 
to  recall  him  to  his  former  acquaintances  and  to 
make  new  ones;  so  he  begs  Aldus  for  a  short  intro- 
ductory note,  which  he  will  leave  entirely  to  his  dis- 
cretion. It  is  an  interesting  comment  on  Erasmus' 
relation  to  the  Italian  scholars  that  he  should  have 
needed  a  publisher's  introduction  to  commend  him 
to  them.  Will  Aldus  be  so  good  as  to  send  him 
twenty  or  thirty  copies  de  luxe  {codices  estimatos)  for 
which  he  will  pay  in  advance,  c.o.d.  or  in  any  way 
Aldus  may  direct  ?  A  singular  reference  in  this 
letter  is  worth  noting  for  the  light  it  sheds  upon — I 


136  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

know  not  exactly  what  aspect  of  Erasmus'  charac- 
ter.    He  says: 

"  Leave  out  the  epigram  at  the  end  of  the  tragedies.  It 
was  written  by  a  certain  young  Frenchman,  at  that  time 
a  servant  of  mine,  whom  I  had  led  to  believe,  by  way  of 
a  joke,  that  these  verses  ought  to  be  printed,  and  I  had 
given  them  to  Badius  at  my  departure  in  the  youth's 
presence  to  make  him  keep  on  hoping.  But  I  wonder 
whatever  put  it  into  Badius'  head  to  print  them,  for  I 
told  the  man  that  I  was  only  playing  a  joke  on  the  lad." 

In  both  these  letters  there  is  shov^rn  a  studied  disre- 
spect for  Badius  and  an  evident  effort  to  gain  the 
good  will  of  Aldus,  to  whom  Erasmus  speaks  as  to 
a  superior  person.  "  No  doubt  you  will  find  many 
errors,  but  in  this  matter  I  do  not  even  ask  you  to 
be  cautious." 

This  friendly  beginning  with  Aldus  had  its  imme- 
diate consequence  for  Erasmus.  He  gave  up  his 
intention — if  he  had  ever  had  it — of  going  to  Rome 
at  Christmas,  1507,  and  we  next  find  him  in  the  early 
part  of  1508  at  Venice.  He  had  thrown  up  the  care 
of  the  young  Boerios,  for  reasons,  perhaps,  con- 
nected with  his  dislike  of  their  attendant,  but  cer- 
tainly without  any  break  with  the  lads  themselves. 

The  specific  purpose  of  Erasmus  in  going  to  Venice 
was  to  prepare  a  new  edition  of  his  Adages,  the  first 
edition  of  which  we  noted  as  made  at  Paris  in  1500. 
Eight  years  of  continuous  occupation  with  classic 
literature,  and  especially  the  progress  he  had  mean- 
while made  in  the  study  of  Greek,  had  given  him  an 
immensely  increased  acquaintance  with  the  kind  of 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  137 

material  he  wished  to  use  for  this  collection.  How 
far  he  had  prepared  the  way  by  correspondence  we 
do  not  know ;  but  it  would  seem  that  he  went  at  the 
work  at  once  and  kept  on  with  it  very  steadily  for 
about  nine  months.  The  peculiar  nature  of  the 
Adages,  a  mere  collection  of  disconnected  para- 
graphs without  any  natural  order  or  arrangement  of 
any  sort,  made  it  possible  for  Erasmus  to  work  in  a 
fashion  very  different  from  his  usual  one.  It  was 
simply  a  question  of  getting  the  thing  along  bit  by 
bit,  and  so  we  find  him  sending  in  a  daily  instalment 
of  "copy  "  and  taking  away  a  daily  batch  of  proof. 
The  first  typographical  corrections  were  made  by  a 
paid  proof-reader,  then  the  author  corrected,  and 
finally  Aldus  himself  read  the  proof,  not  so  much, 
as  he  once  said  in  reply  to  a  question  of  Erasmus, 
to  ensure  correctness  as  for  his  own  instruction. 

We  gain  from  many  scattered  indications  a 
picture,  on  the  whole  very  attractive,  of  this  new 
activity.'  It  was  Erasmus'  first  experience  as  a 
fellow-worker  with  anyone,  and  it  had  its  uncom- 
fortable aspects  of  course,  or  he  would  not  have  been 
Erasmus.  His  critics,  notably  Scaliger,  would  have 
it  afterward,  on  the  authority  of  Aldus  himself,  that 
Erasmus  was  little  more  than  a  paid  assistant  in  the 
printing-office,  and  one  is  at  a  loss  to  know  why  so 
honourable  an  occupation  should  have  seemed  an 
occasion  for  reviling  him  or  worth  his  own  while  to 
deny.  The  obvious  refutation  lies  in  the  great 
amount  of  work  required  by  the  Adages  themselves. 
He*must  have  been  busy  enough  to  refute  other 

'  See  the  adage  Festina  lente,  ii.,  405,  B-D. 


138  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

charges  of  Scaliger  as  to  his  laziness.  Whatever 
else  he  may  have  been,  he  was  not  lazy  then  nor  at 
any  other  time  of  his  life.  As  to  still  another  ac- 
cusation we  may  perhaps  have  our  doubts.  Scaliger 
says:  "  While  you  were  doing  the  work  of  half  a 
man,  reading  [proof  ?]  in  Aldus'  office,  you  were 
a  three-bodied  Geryon  for  drinking." 

The  view  of  Erasmus  at  Venice  which  is  re- 
flected in  Scaliger's  tirade  may  have  come  from 
the  undoubted  familiarity  of  Erasmus'  relation  with 
Aldus  and  his  family.  Probably  the  most  vivid 
conception  of  such  an  early  printing-office  may  be 
gained  to-day  by  a  visit  to  the  great  house  of  Plantin 
at  Antwerp,  now  happily  preserved  by  the  piety  of 
the  municipality  and  kept  as  nearly  as  possible  in 
the  condition  it  was  in  at  the  time  of  its  great  activ- 
ity but  little  later  than  that  of  the  house  of  Aldus. 
It  is  an  ample  burgher  residence,  with  spacious 
living-rooms  and  every  indication  of  a  generous 
family  life;  but  under  the  same  roof  and  in  close 
connection  with  the  living  apartments  are  also  the 
rooms  devoted  to  business.  The  working  force  was 
in  an  intimate  sense  the  "  family  "  of  the  publisher, 
and  from  the  earliest  moment  of  his  arrival  Erasmus 
seems  to  have  formed  one  in  the  Aldine  corps.  The 
principal  account  of  this  Venetian  life  is,  unfortu- 
nately to  be  found  in  the  colloquy,  **  The  Rich 
Miser,"  one  of  the  most  scurrilous  of  all  Erasmus' 
writings.  The  person  here  exposed  to  the  biting 
sting  of  his  humour  is  Andreas  d'Asola,  the  father- 
in-law  of  Aldus  Manutius.  He  seems  to  have  been 
the  economic  head  of  the  Aldine  household  and,  in 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  139 

some  form,  a  partner  in  the  business,  as  were  also 
his  two  sons,  Federigo  and  Francesco.  Erasmus 
was  received  into  this  family  on  the  same  terms, 
apparently,  as  other  workers.  The  household  con- 
sisted of  thirty-three  persons.  Beatus  represents 
this  arrangement  as  a  kindness  to  Erasmus,  to  save 
him  from  going  to  a  hotel  and,  at  all  events,  he  re- 
mained a  fellow-member  of  this  clan  as  long  as  he 
stayed  in  Venice.  There  was  certainly  no  compul- 
sion upon  him  to  do  so  unless  he  pleased,  and  com- 
mon courtesy  ought  to  have  prevented  him  from 
holding  up  to  the  ridicule  of  the  world  a  family  and 
a  people  to  whom,  as  he  elsewhere  freely  acknow- 
ledges, he  owed  every  kind  of  assistance  in  his  work 
and  every  personal  attention.  The  principal  speaker 
in  the  Opitlentia  sordida  is  one  Gilbertus,  who  pre- 
sents himself  to  his  friend  Jacobus  in  such  lean 
and  pitiful  guise  that  the  friend  inquires  whether  he 
has  been  serving  a  term  in  the  galleys.  "  No,"  he 
replies,  "  I  have  been  at  Synodium,  boarding  with 
Antronius. "  The  weather  had  been  for  three  months 
continually  cold,  so  that  he  was  nearly  frozen  to 
death;  for  the  only  firewood  they  had  had  was 
green  stumps  which  Antronius  rooted  up  by  night 
out  of  the  common  land.  In  summer  it  was  worse 
on  account  of  vermin,  but  Antronius  never  minded 
that,  he  was  brought  up  to  it;  and  besides  he 
was  always  off  trading  in  everything  that  would 
bring  him  in  a  penny  of  profit.  Even  on  the 
funerals  that  went  out  of  his  house  he  made  his 
gain,  and  these  were  two  or  three  at  least  in  the 
most  healthful  year;  for  he  played  such  tricks  with 


140  Desiderlus  Erasmus  [1506- 

his  wine  that  some  were  always  dying  of  the  stone. 
Yet  he  weakened  his  wine  by  throwing  in  a  bucket- 
ful of  water  every  day,  and  adulterated  the  meal  of 
which  his  bread  was  made  by  mixing  chalk  with  it. 
The  son-in-law  Orthrogonus,  who  stands  for  Aldus 
himself,  comes  in  for  his  share  of  abuse  for  aiding 
and  abetting  in  this  villany.  Frequently  Antronius 
would  come  home  pretending  to  be  very  ill  and 
without  appetite,  and  then  the  whole  family  would 
have  to  starve  on  grey  peas  with  a  little  oil  on  them. 
Finally,  however,  dinner  would  be  served,  but  such 
a  dinner!  First  a  soup  of  water  with  lumps  of  old 
cheese  soaked  in  it,  then  a  piece  of  fortnight-old 
tripe  covered  up  with  a  batter  of  eggs  to  cheat  the 
eye,  but  not  enough  to  deceive  the  sense  of  smell, 
and,  to  close,  some  of  the  same  stale  cheese.  The 
luckless  boarder  saved  his  life  by  having  a  quarter 
of  a  boiled  chicken  served  up  with  each  meal,  but 
even  this  was  a  poor  wretched  fowl  and  he  was 
stinted  in  his  meagre  ration.  Even  his  own  private 
fresh  eggs  were  stolen  by  the  women  and  rotten  ones 
given  him  instead,  and  his  own  cask  of  good  wine 
was  broached  by  the  same  thieves  and  drunk  up 
without  remonstrance  from  the  host. 

The  worst  of  it  was  that  when  they  found  out 
that  the  poor  Northerner  was  trying  to  keep  soul 
and  body  together  by  buying  extra  things,  they  set 
a  doctor  upon  him  to  persuade  him  not  to  be  such 
a  glutton.  The  doctor  was  a  very  good-natured 
fellow  and  finally  compromised  on  a  supper  of  an 
egg  and  a  glass  of  wine,  admitting  that  he  allowed 
himself  this  indulgence,  and,  as  Erasmus  testifies. 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  141 

kept  himself  fat  and  hearty  on  such  a  diet.  The 
dialogue  concludes  with  good  Erasmian  hedging; 
for  the  grumbler  confesses  that  if  the  food  had  been 
of  good  quality  he  would  have  got  on  very  well 
with  the  quantity,  and,  after  all,  eating  was  largely  a 
matter  of  habit  and  he,  being  used  to  a  different 
method,  simply  could  not  do  with  this.  'J'he  final 
fling  at  poor  Andreas  is  to  say  that  his  sons,  for 
whom  he  was  doing  all  this  scraping  and  pinching, 
would  make  up  for  their  scanty  fare  at  home 
by  throwing  their  money  away  in  riotous  living 
outside. 

Make  what  allowance  we  may  for  the  humorous 
exaggeration  of  this  tirade,  it  cannot  give  us  any 
but  the  lowest  notion  of  its  author's  fineness  of  feel- 
ing. The  bit  of  truth  contained  in  it  was  probably 
that  to  Erasmus  the  usual  manner  of  living  of  the 
well-to-do  Italians  seemed  meanly  insufficient,  while 
to  the  Italians  his  natural  demands  seemed  those  of 
a  glutton  and  a  wine-bibber.  Very  likely  his  friends, 
in  the  kindness  of  their  hearts,  called  in  a  physician 
to  persuade  him  to  consider  his  health  by  living 
more  as  they  did.  It  is  simply  the  ever-repeated 
struggle  of  the  Northerner,  accustomed  to  much 
animal  food  and  to  strong  drink,  to  understand  the 
frugal  ways  of  the  South.  Our  interest  in  the  whole 
incident  fs  to  notice  that  here  Erasmus  contracted 
the  disease  which  to  his  great  bodily  distress,  but 
also,  it  must  be  admitted,  often  to  his  great  moral 
comfort,  he  was  to  carry  about  with  him  to  his 
death.  He  writes  from  Basel  in  1523  to  Francesco 
d'Asola,  one  of  the  youths  to  whom  he  gives  such  a 


142  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

villainous  character  in  his  Opulentia  sordida  :  "  I 
have  not  forgotten  our  former  intimacy,  nor  would 
my  gravel  let  me  do  so  if  I  would,  for  I  first  got  it 
there  and  every  time  it  comes  it  reminds  me  of 
Venice."  His  own  explanation  of  this  attack  is  the 
badness  of  his  fare,  especially  the  wine,  which,  he 
says,  caused  two  or  three  deaths  from  stone  every 
year  in  the  Aldine  family ;  but  we  may  be  permitted 
a  doubt  whether  it  was  not  rather  due  to  his  own 
imprudence  and  his  refusal  to  adapt  himself  to  the 
simple  manners  of  the  country.' 

The  Aldine  printing  establishment  was  a  kind  of 
literary  club-house  for  the  finer  spirits  of  the  Repub- 
lic, ^nd  Erasmus  was  here  introduced  to  them  all. 
All  were  interested  in  his  work  and  helped  him  with 
manuscripts  and  suggestions ;  to  such  a  degree,  in- 
deed, that  this  was  one  of  the  counts  in  Scaliger's 
indictment  against  him.  Such  aid  may,  however, 
easily  be  explained  by  the  peculiar  nature  of  the 
Adages.  Every  available  source,  written,  printed,  or 
oral,  was  properly  laid  under  contribution  for  a  work 
which  was  essentially  a  compilation. 

Of  these  men,  none  was  of  the  first  rank  as  a 
scholar;  they  were  the  fair  representatives  of  that 
humanistic  generation  which  had  come  into  the 
great  inheritance  of  culture  prepared  for  it  by  two 
previous  generations.  The  early  original  impulse 
with  its  extravagant  individualism  had  settled  down 


'  It  seems  quite  clear  that  Erasmus  was  a  victim  to  what  is  now 
known  as  the  "  uric  acid  or  gouty  diathesis,"  a  condition  much  more 
likely  to  be  produced  by  high  living  and  heavy  drinking  than  by  any 
such  experience  as  he  describes  in  the  Opulentia  sordida. 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  143 

into  a  calmer,  wider,  and  more  polished  method  of 
thought  and  work.  Culture  had  made  its  way  into 
all  departments  of  life  and  proved  its  right  to  exist 
by  useful  service.  Of  the  Venetian  scholars  we 
need  mention  but  few.  Two  Greeks,  Marcus  Mu- 
surus  and  Johannes  Lascaris,  were  famous,  the  one 
as  a  Greek  teacher,  the  other  as  the  literary  purveyor 
of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  and,  at  the  time  of  Eras- 
mus, as  ambassador  of  King  Louis  of  France  to  the 
Republic.  Girolamo  Aleander,  then  a  man  of 
twenty-eight,  was  preparing  himself  to  teach  Greek 
at  Paris  and,  in  fact,  went  thither  in  1508  with  letters 
of  introduction  from  Erasmus.  The  two  were  to 
meet  on  another  field  when  Aleander  as  legate  of 
Leo  X.  at  the  court  of  Charles  V.  was  to  be  the  chief 
agent  in  the  papal  policy  against  Luther  and  was  to 
reproach  Erasmus  in  bitter  terms  for  his  half-way 
policy  towards  the  Reformation.  Erasmus  believed 
that  he  was  the  author  of  the  attacks  of  Scaliger, 
of  whom  he  knew  nothing,  and  says  in  this  connec- 
tion that  they  were  co-frequenters  at  Aldus's  and 
that  he  knew  him  as  well  as  he  knew  himself. 

Everything  goes  to  show  that  the  nine  months  of 
the  Venetian  visit  were  months  of  eager  work,  re- 
lieved by  intercourse  with  men  of  genuine  culture 
and  of  unbroken  friendliness.  That  Erasmus  should 
have  dwelt  more  upon  the  petty  inconveniences  of 
his  life  than  upon  these  weightier  things  is  quite  in 
character.  The  real  monument  of  his  Venetian  days 
is  the  great  second  edition  of  the  Adages,  in  substan- 
tially their  final  form. 

From    Venice    Erasmus    moved    in    the    early 


144  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

autumn  to  Padua,  the  university  city  of  the  Vene- 
tian territory.  His  immediate  business  there  was  to 
take  charge  of  a  pupil,  the  young  illegitimate  son  of 
King  James  IV.  of  Scotland.  This  amiable  youth, 
Alexander  by  name,  was  already,  at  eighteen,  bur- 
dened with  the  title  of  Archbishop  of  Saint  Andrews. 
He  had  come  to  Italy  to  study,  and  was  commended 
to  Erasmus  by  his  father  to  receive  instruction  in 
rhetoric.  Erasmus  once  uses  him  as  an  illustration 
of  near-sightedness:  ^'  he  could  see  nothing  without 
touching  his  nose  to  the  book."  Yet  he  was  a  most 
clever  fellow  with  his  hand.  Writing  in  1528  to  his 
Nuremberg  friend  Pirkheimer  about  certain  alleged 
manuscript  forgeries,  Erasmus  tells  a  pretty  tale  of 
Alexander,  which  shows  a  very  pleasant  relation 
between  them : 

"  he  once  showed  me  a  printed  book  which  I  knew  for 
certain  I  had  never  read ;  but  in  the  numerous  marginal 
notes  I  recognised  my  own  handwriting.  I  asked  him 
where  he  had  got  the  book.  '  I  acknowledge  the  writing, ' 
I  said,  '  but  the  book  I  have  never  read  nor  had  in  my 
possession.'  '  Oh,  yes,'  he  replied,  '  you  read  it  once, 
but  you  have  forgotten  it;  otherwise  where  did  this 
writing  come  from  ? '  Finally,  with  a  laugh,  he  con- 
fessed the  trick." 

Marcus  Musurus,  his  acquaintance  at  Venice,  was 
here  at  Padua  the  best  friend  and  helper  of  Erasmus. 
He  was  in  full  activity  as  professor  of  Greek,  and 
though  we  have  no  record  of  any  regular  instruction 
to  the  visitor,  it  is  certain  that  Erasmus  applied  to 
him  for  many  details  of  his  own  work  and  held  him 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  i45 

always  in  grateful  memory.  Indeed  his  short  resi- 
dence of  but  a  few  weeks  at  Padua  seems  to  have 
been  an  exception  to  the  rule  of  tediousness.  He 
refers  to  Padua  afterwards  as  the  seat  of  a  more 
serious  scholarship  than  was  to  be  found  at  other 
Italian  university  towns.  The  formation  of  the 
League  of  Cambrai  between  King  Louis  XII.  of 
France,  Pope  Julius  II.,  the  Emperor  Maximilian, 
and  the  King  of  Spain  against  the  republic  of  Venice 
broke  up  the  quiet  circle  of  Paduan  scholars. 
Troops  of  the  allies  began  to  make  their  appearance 
in  Venetian  territory  and  Erasmus,  reluctantly  he 
says,  was  forced  to  move  southward.  He  travelled 
in  the  suite  of  the  boy-archbishop,  stopping  first  at 
Ferrara,  where  he  met  a  choice  circle  of  resident 
scholars,  among  whom  was  the  young  Englishman, 
Richard  Pace.  It  was  at  Pace's  house  that  he  was 
presented  to  the  Ferrarese  Humanists.  A  very 
pretty  little  story  is  recalled  by  one  of  them,  Coelius 
Calcagninus,  who  in  writing  to  Erasmus  in  1525 
reminds  him  of  their  meeting  in  Ferrara,  and  gives 
him  a  brief  account  of  the  other  scholars  whom  he 
had  met  there. 

"We  were  talking,"  he  writes,  "of  Aspendius  the 
harp-player,  and  the  question  came  up  as  to  the  meaning 
of  mtus  canere  and  extra  canere,  when  you  suddenly  drew 
forth  from  your  pouch-  a  copy  of  your  Adages,  just 
printed  at  Venice.  From  that  moment  I  began  to  ad- 
mire the  genius  and  learning  of  Erasmus,  and  scarce 
ever  have  I  heard  mention  of  his  name  without  recalling 
that  conversation  almost  with  reverence.  My  witness  is 
Richard  Pace,  that  man  most  learned  himself  and  by 


14^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

nature  made  to  be  the  promoter  of  the  studies  of  the 
most  learned  men." 

Only  a  few  days  were  spent  at  Ferrara  and  still  less 
time  at  Bologna.  The  party  reached  Siena  at  the 
very  end  of  1508  or  the  beginning  of  1509,  and  there 
settled  definitely  for  the  work  of  the  young  arch- 
bishop. We  have  a  very  engaging  picture  of  Eras- 
mus as  a  teacher  of  rhetoric  in  his  comments  upon 
the  Adage,  "  Thou  wast  born  at  Sparta;  do  honour 
to  it."  '  He  represents  his  pupil  as  a  model  of  all 
the  virtues  and  gives  us  again  an  insight  into  his 
method  of  teaching.  It  is  always  the  same  which 
he  had  himself  employed  in  learning,  the  method  of 
persistent  practice  in  repeating  and  writing  the 
language  itself.  A  style  was  to  be  formed  only  by 
becoming  absolutely  familiar  with  the  classic  model. 

Yet  the  life  at  Siena,  serene  and  charming  as  it 
may  have  been  for  the  pupil,  was,  if  we  may  judge 
by  his  expressions  in  other  connections,  more  or 
less  a  bore  to  the  master.  He  liked  to  think  of 
himself  as  an  authority  on  the  art  of  teaching,  but 
he  seems  always  to  have  regarded  teaching  as  being, 
for  himself,  an  interruption  to  the  higher  interests 
of  his  life.  After  a  few  weeks  he  was  restless  again, 
and  begged  permission  of  his  pupil  to  go  on  alone  to 
Rome. 

It  is  easy  for  a  modern  to  picture  the  charm  which 
the  Eternal  City  with  its  countless  memorials  of  the 
ancient  world  must  have  exercised  upon  a  man  whose 
life  was  devoted  to  the  study  of  that  world,  who 

'  »•>  554. 


CARDINAL  REGINALD  POLE. 

'ERASMI    OPERA,"    PUBLISHED   AT    LEYDEN,    1703. 


I509]  Residence  in  Italy  147 

spoke  and  wrote  its  language,  and  who  drew  from  it 
almost  the  whole  material  of  his  intellectual  occupa- 
tion. None  of  the  biographers  of  Erasmus  has  been 
quite  able  to  resist  the  temptation  to  tell  what  he 
must  have  have  thought  and  felt  in  this  august 
presence;  but  candour  compels  us  to  say  that  his 
own  witness  on  this  point  is  as  meagre  as  can  well 
be  imagined.  Only  one  or  two  scattered  expressions 
give  us  any  reason  to  think  that  his  impressions  of 
Rome  were  at  all  of  the  kind  they  ought  in  all  reason 
to  have  been.  It  was  the  pontificate  of  Julius  II., 
a  man  indeed  chiefly  devoted  to  the  political  in- 
terests of  his  great  place,  but  also  an  eager  patron 
of  art  and  learning,  doing  his  part  in  the  attempt, 
never  quite  successful,  to  make  Rome  a  real  centre 
of  culture.  What  was  true  of  the  pope  was  true  also 
of  that  group  of  great  prelates  who  formed  around 
him  a  court  more  splendid  and  not  less  worldly  than 
that  of  any  purely  temporal  ruler.  Say  what  one 
may  and,  in  all  truth,  must  say  of  the  corruption 
and  scandal  of  the  Roman  institution,  it  was  a  life 
of  immense  activity  and,  for  a  thinking  man,  one  of 
great  interest.  Rome  was  alive  with  building; 
painting  and  sculptural  decoration  were  being  car- 
ried to  a  height  unheard  of  in  human  history.  The 
ancient  monuments  were,  it  is  true,  fast  disappear- 
ing to  make  room  and  to  furnish  material  for  new 
construction,  but  enough  was  left  to  give  the  inter- 
ested traveller  abundant  suggestion  of  what  had 
been.  That  Erasmus  saw  and,  after  his  fashion, 
noted  these  things  is  certain  ;  but  he  felt  no  impulse 
to  dwell  upon  them  or  to  speak  of  them  to  others. 


148  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

His  life  during  this  first '  visit  at  Rome  was  more 
completely  that  of  the  literary  traveller  and  sight- 
seer than  it  had  ever  been  anywhere.  There  is  no 
pretence  that  he  busied  himself  with  study  or  with 
composition.  So  far  as  he  had  any  aim  it  seems  to 
have  been  to  make  acquaintance  with  men  of  his 
own  kind  and  their  patrons, — nor  is  there  the  slight- 
est room  for  suspicion  that  in  making  these  connec- 
tions he  had  in  view  any  ulterior  advantage  to 
himself.  His  best  introduction  was  the  book  of 
Adages,  by  this  time  widely  known  and  everywhere 
justly  welcomed  as  a  monument  of  vast  learning, 
immense  industry,  and  an  orginality  of  thought  not 
less  noteworthy. 

Perhaps  the  most  intimate  companion  of  these 
Roman  days  was  Scipio  Carteromachos,  a  Tuscan 
scholar,  with  whom  Erasmus  had  made  acquaintance 
at  Bologna,  and  for  whom  he  expresses  unusual  re- 
gard. "  He  was  a  man,"  he  writes,  "  of  curious 
and  accurate  learning,  but  so  averse  to  display  that 
unless  you  called  him  out  you  would  swear  that  he 
was  quite  ignorant  of  letters."  They  had  met  again 
at  Padua,  and  now  lived  for  a  while  at  Rome  appar- 
ently in  the  greatest  intimacy,  sharing  the  same 
bed  at  times,  though  this  it  would  seem  was  not  an 
unusual  proof  of  friendship  with  Erasmus.  Through 
Carteromachos  he  was  introduced  to  many  others, 
scholars  of  the  same  type  and  frequenters  of  the 
papal  court.     The  result  was  that  he  found  himself 


■  There  seems  to  be  no  sufficient  reason  to  accept,  as  Drummond 
does,  a  previous  trip  of  Erasmus  to  Rome  during  his  residence  at 
Bologna. 


I509]  Residence  in  Italy  149 

brought  into  relation  with  the  most  distinguished 
Roman  circle.  He  makes  the  most  of  this  fact 
afterward  in  defending  himself  from  the  charge  of 
unfaithfulness  to  the  papal  cause,  and  there  would 
seem  to  be  no  room  for  doubt  that  he  was  at  least 
a  well  tolerated  guest  of  the  men  who  were  giving  the 
tone  to  the  ruling  society  of  the  capital.  He  claims 
intimate  acquaintance  with  Tommaso  Inghirami, 
the  most  popular  preacher  of  the  city,  the  type  of 
religious  orator  who  gave  scandal  to  the  more  serious 
by  garnishing  his  oratory  rather  with  classic  allusion 
and  quotation  than  with  proofs  and  texts  of  the 
Bible.  In  his  treatise  on  a  false  purity  of  style 
called  Ciceronianus,  Erasmus  gives  us  a  choice  spec- 
imen of  this  kind  of  preaching.' 

He  says  that  he  was  urged  by  his  learned  friends 
at  Rome  to  attend  the  discourse  of  a  famous  pulpit 
orator  whose  name  he  would  rather  have  understood 
than  expressed.  The  subject  was  the  death  of 
Christ.  Pope  Julius  H.  himself  was  present,  a  most 
unusual  honour,  and  with  him  a  great  crowd  of  car- 
dinals, bishops,  and  visiting  scholars.  The  opening 
and  closing  parts  of  the  discourse,  longer  than  the 
real  sermon  itself,  were  occupied  with  praises  of 
Julius,  whom  the  orator  called 

"  '  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus,  brandishing  in  his  all- 
powerful  right  hand  the  three-forked  fatal  thunderbolt 
and  by  his  nod  alone  doing  what  he  will.'  Everything 
that  had  happened  in  recent  years,  in  France,  Germany, 
Spain,  Portugal,  Africa,  Greece,  he  declared  had  been 

'i.  993.  994- 


15<^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

done  by  the  will  of  that  man  alone.  All  this  was  said  at 
Rome,  by  a  Roman,  in  the  tongue  of  Rome,  and  with  the 
Roman  accent.  But  what  had  all  this  to  do  with  Julius, 
the  high-priest  of  the  Christian  religion,  the  vicar  of 
Christ,  the  successor  of  Peter  and  Paul  ? — or  with  the 
cardinals  and  bishops,  the  vicegerents  of  the  other 
Apostles  ?  As  to  the  topic  he  had  undertaken  to  treat, 
nothing  could  be  more  solemn,  more  real,  more  wonder- 
ful, more  lofty,  or  more  suited  to  kindle  emotion.  Who, 
though  he  were  endowed  with  but  a  very  common  kind 
of  eloquence,  could  not  with  such  an  argument  have 
drawn  tears  from  men  of  stone  ?  The  plan  of  the  dis- 
course was  this: — first  to  depict  the  death  of  Christ  as  sad 
and  then  by  a  change  of  style  to  describe  it  as  glorious 
and  triumphant — in  order,  of  course,  that  he  might  give 
us  a  specimen  of  Cicero's  Savoxrcws,  by  which  he  was  able 
to  carry  away  the  emotions  of  his  hearers  at  will. 

"  Hypologus: — Well,  did  he  succeed  ? 

"  BuLEPHORUS: — For  my  part,  when  he  was  working 
his  hardest  upon  those  melancholy  feelings  which  the 
rhetoricians  call  TrdOr),  to  tell  the  truth  I  was  more  in- 
clined to  laugh.  I  did  not  see  a  person  in  that  whole 
concourse  one  whit  the  sadder,  when  he  was  piling  up 
with  the  whole  force  of  his  eloquence  the  unmerited  suf- 
ferings of  the  innocent  Christ.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
did  I  see  anyone  the  more  cheerful  when  he  was  wholly 
occupied  with  showing  forth  His  death  to  us  as  triumph- 
ant, praiseworthy,  and  glorious,   .   .  . 

"  Not  to  make  more  words  about  it,  this  Roman  talked 
in  such  a  very  Roman  fashion  that  I  heard  nothing  about 
the  death  of  Christ.  And  yet,  because  he  was  so  eagerly 
striving  after  a  Ciceronian  diction,  he  seemed  to  the 
Ciceronians  to  have  spoken  marvellously.  Of  his  sub- 
ject he  said  hardly  a  word ;  he  seemed  neither  to  under- 


I 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  151 

stand  it  nor  to  care  for  it.  Nor  did  he  say  anything  to 
the  point  nor  rouse  any  emotion.  The  only  reason  for 
praising  him  was  that  he  spoke  like  a  Roman  and  recalled 
a  something  of  Cicero.  If  such  a  discourse  had  been  de- 
livered by  a  schoolboy  to  his  mates  it  might  have  been 
praised  as  an  evidence  of  a  certain  talent;  but  on  such  a 
day,  before  such  an  audience,  and  on  such  a  topic,  I  pray 
you,  what  sense  was  there  in  it  ?  " 

Among  the  cardinals  two  are  especially  mentioned 
as  friendly  to  our  traveller,  Raffaelle  Riario,  nephew 
of  Julius  11.,  and  the  Venetian  Grimani.  If  we 
may  trust  Erasmus'  allusions,  he  was  in  the  way 
of  frequently  going  in  and  out  at  the  houses  of 
great  men,  but  his  character  as  a  man  of  letters, 
whom  it  was  their  pride  and  pleasure  to  favour, 
seems  to  have  been  strictly  maintained.  In  the 
great  throng  of  followers  of  a  princely  establish- 
ment, one  wandering  scholar  more  or  less  made  no 
great  matter,  and  it  would  not  do,  from  the  words 
"  hospitality  "  and  "  familiarity  "  to  argue  any  very 
close   personal   intimacy. 

What  strikes  one  most  forcibly  is  the  almost 
total  absence  of  anything  like  discussion  on  pub- 
lic affairs.  The  only  topic  on  which  Erasmus 
thinks  it  worth  while  to  make  any  report  is  classi- 
cal studies,  and  on  this  he  gives  us  only  brief 
detail.  There  is  no  indication  that  this  visit  to 
Rome  had  any  decisive  influence  upon  Erasmus'  at- 
titude towards  the  Church.  That  was  already  deter- 
mined. Nothing  could  be  more  distinct  than  his 
declarations  in  the  Enchiridion  and  now,  quite  re- 
cently, in  the  Adages.     Rome  could  hardly  fail  to 


152  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

furnish  him  with  new  suggestions  and  illustrations, 
but  it  was  as  far  from  forcing  him  into  any  new 
attitude  of  opposition  as  it  was  from  so  influencing 
Luther  on  his  visit  a  year  later.  Both  saw  many 
things  which  startled  and  shocked  them,  but  Eras- 
mus had  already  reached  the  limit  of  his  critical 
development  and  Luther  had  hardly  as  yet  begun 
to  formulate  his  criticism  of  the  Roman  institu- 
tion. 

The  only  exception  to  the  rule  of  exclusion  from 
public  affairs  is  found  in  the  invitation  of  Cardinal 
Riario  to  write  a  dissertation  on  the  subject  of  the 
proposed  war  against  Venice.  It  was  a  most  ticklish 
commission,  and  Erasmus'  solution  of  it  was  more 
than  Erasmian.  He  wrote  two  treatises,  one  for 
the  war  and  the  other  against  it,  that  those  who 
were  to  pay  their  money  might  have  their  choice. 
He  put  more  heart  into  the  second,  he  says,  but 
the  advice  of  the  first  was  followed.  Both  these 
treatises  were  lost,  he  tells  us,  by  the  treachery 
of  some  person.  There  was  an  unfounded  rumour 
that  the  grim  old  soldier-pope,  finding  Erasmus' 
sentiments  against  war  very  little  to  his  taste, 
sent  for  the  author  and  warned  him  in  future 
to  let  politics  alone;  but  it  is  highly  improbable 
that  if  Erasmus  had  had  an  interview  with  the 
pope,  even  under  so  untoward  circumstances,  he 
would  have  failed  to  make  some  mention  of  it. 

Yet  it  would  be  far  from,  true  that  Erasmus  lived 
in  Rome  with  his  eyes  shut.  Numerous  little  allu- 
sions to  Roman  and  Italian  traits  in  his  later  writings 
show  that  he  was  here,  as  everywhere,  very  much  of 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  153 

a  human  being,  keenly  alive  to  what  was  going  on 
about  him  and  mindful  of  its  use  on  future  occasions. 

The  young  archbishop  was  soon  recalled  to  Scot- 
land, and  four  years  afterward  he  met  his  death, 
fighting  bravely  by  his  father's  side  on  the  fatal  field 
of  Flodden.  Before  leaving  Italy  he  desired  to  see 
Rome,  and  in  his  company  Erasmus,  who  had  mean- 
while returned  to  Siena,  went  back  again  as  learned 
guide  and  companion.  They  seem  to  have  gone 
southward  as  far  as  Naples,  but  to  have  made  only 
a  flying  visit  even  in  Rome.  Erasmus  remained 
there  after  his  pupil  had  left,  and  it  is  during  this 
final  visit  that  the  question  of  a  permanent  residence 
begins  to  be  discussed. 

As  to  the  possibility  or  probability  that  Erasmus 
would  definitely  settle  at  Rome,  there  is  room  for 
difTerence  of  opinion.  If  one  may  judge  from  his 
own  allusions  there  was  no  country,  in  which  he 
made  any  considerable  stay,  which  did  not  at  one 
time  or  another  occur  to  him  as  a  possible  residence 
for  his  declining  years,  and  on  this  general  principle, 
why  not  Rome  as  well  as  another  place  ?  Our  study 
of  his  character  up  to  this  point,  however,  should 
lead  us  at  once  to  understand  that,  of  all  places  in 
the  world,  Rome  was  least  suited  to  his  peculiar 
genius.  Although  he  was  quite  capable  of  defend- 
ing both  sides  of  any  argument,  he  could  not  be 
happy  where  he  must  either  do  this  all  the  time  or 
else  commit  himself  without  reserve  to  the  dominant 
tone  of  a  society  which  would  eventually  absorb  him 
completely.  Furthermore,  the  almost  inevitable 
condition  of  a  Roman  residence  was  the  holding  of 


154  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

an  ecclesiastical  office  and  this,  no  matter  how  high 
it  might  be — the  higher  in  fact  the  worse — was  as 
far  as  possible  from  the  line  of  Erasmus'  ambition. 
Beatus  says  he  was  offered  the  very  high  function 
of  papal  penitentiary,  with  a  hint  that  this  might  be 
a  stepping-stone  to  higher  dignities.  When  we  con- 
sider the  kind  of  official  places  filled  by  many  of  the 
Italian  humanists,  such  an  offer  does  not  seem  im- 
probable. Less  clear  is  one's  feeling  about  a  propos- 
ition made  by  the  Venetian  Cardinal  Grimani  that 
Erasmus  should  attach  himself  to  his  personal  follow- 
ing and,  presumably,  continue  to  live  the  life  of  an 
independent  scholar.  Erasmus'  account  of  his  in- 
terview with  the  cardinal  is  worth  while  for  us 
because  of  its  many  details.  It  was  written  in  1531, 
after  the  death  of  Grimani,  and  is  given  in  a  letter ' 
apropos  of  a  reference  to  the  cardinal's  services  to 
the  cause  of  letters,  especially  in  maintaining  so 
large  and  valuable  a  library. 

"  When  I  was  at  Rome  I  was  invited  once  and  again 
by  him,  through  Pietro  Bembo,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  to 
an  interview  with  him,  and  though  I  was  at  that  time  very 
averse  to  seeking  the  company  of  great  men,  I  at  last 
went  to  his  palace  more  from  shame  than  from  desire. 
Neither  in  the  courtyard  nor  in  the  vestibule  did  the 
shadow  of  a  human  being  appear.  It  was  the  afternoon 
hour.  I  gave  my  horse  to  my  man  and  went  up  alone, 
found  no  one  in  the  first  hall,  nor  in  the  second,  and  still 
on  to  the  third,  finding  not  a  door  closed  and  wondering 
at  the  solitude.     Only  in  the  last  did  I  find  one  man,  a 

'  iii.*,  1375  A— D. 


CARDINAL  PETER   BEMBO. 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  155 

Greek  physician  I  believe,  with  shaven  head,  guarding 
the  open  door,  I  inquired  what  the  cardinal  was  doing. 
He  replied  that  he  was  within  talking  with  some  gentle- 
men, and  as  I  said  no  more  he  asked  what  I  wished. 
'  To  make  my  compliments  to  him, '  I  said,  '  if  convenient, 
but  as  he  is  not  at  leisure,  I  will  call  again.'  Then,  as  I 
was  about  to  go  and  was  looking  out  of  the  window,  the 
Greek  returned  to  me  and  waited  to  see  if  I  had  any 
message  for  the  cardinal.  '  There  is  no  occasion  to  in- 
terrupt his  conference,'  I  said;  '  I  will  come  again  soon.' 
Finally  he  asked  my  name  and  I  gave  it  to  him.  When 
he  heard  it  he  rushed  in  before  I  knew  it  and  soon 
coming  out  said  I  was  not  to  go  away  and  I  was  sum- 
moned at  once.  As  I  came  in  the  cardinal  received  me 
not  as  a  cardinal  and  such  a  cardinal  might  receive  a  man 
of  the  lowest  condition,  but  as  a  colleague.  A  chair  was 
set  for  me  and  we  talked  more  than  two  hours,  during 
which  he  did  not  permit  me  to  take  off  my  hat.  For  a 
man  at  the  very  height  of  fortune  his  graciousness  was 
marvellous.  Among  the  many  things  he  said  about 
study,  showing  that  he  had  then  in  mind  what  I  learn  he 
has  since  done  about  his  library,  he  began  to  urge  me 
not  to  leave  Rome,  the  nurse  of  genius.  He  invited  me 
to  share  his  palace  and  the  enjoyment  of  all  his  fortunes, 
adding  that  the  warm  and  moist  climate  of  Rome  would 
suit  my  health,  and  especially  that  part  of  the  city  where 
he  had  his  dwelling,  a  palace  built  by  a  former  pope  who 
had  chosen  the  site  as  being  the  most  healthful  in  the 
city.  After  we  had  had  considerable  discussion  he  sent 
for  his  nephew,  who  had  just  been  made  archbishop,  a 
youth  of  an  almost  divine  disposition.  As  I  started  to 
rise  he  forbade  me,  saying: — '  It  is  becoming  for  the 
pupil  to  stand  before  the  master. '  At  length  he  showed 
me  his  library  of  books  in  many  tongues. 


156  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

"  If  I  had  known  this  man  earlier  I  should  never  have 
left  a  city  which  I  found  favourable  to  me  beyond  my 
deserts.  But  I  had  already  arranged  to  go  and  matters 
had  gone  so  far  that  I  could  hardly  have  remained 
honourably.  When  I  said  that  I  had  been  summoned 
by  the  king  of  England,  he  ceased  to  urge  me,  but 
begged  me  over  and  over  again  not  to  suspect  him  of  not 
meaning  what  he  had  said  nor  to  judge  him  according  to 
the  usual  manners  of  courtiers.  With  difficulty  I  got 
away  from  the  conference;  but  when  he  was  unwilling  to 
detain  me  longer,  he  laid  it  upon  me  with  his  last  words 
that  I  should  see  him  again  on  the  subject  before  I  left 
the  city.  I  did  not  return,  unhappy  man  that  I  was,  lest 
I  should  be  overcome  by  his  kindness  and  change  my 
mind.     But  what  can  one  do  against  the  fates!  " 

This  interview  was  held  at  the  last  moment  of 
Erasmus'  stay  in  Rome,  before  his  departure  for 
England.  His  account  makes  it  clear  that  he  had 
not  known  Grimani  before,  so  that  we  cannot  reckon 
him  among  Erasmus'  Roman  patrons.  Nor  can  we 
give  too  much  weight  to  the  promises  of  employ- 
ment. From  the  connection  in  which  Erasmus  in- 
troduces the  story  it  seems  quite  probable  that  the 
cardinal  had  some  idea  of  making  use  of  him  in 
connection  with  his  library;  but  the  great  scholar 
had  no  fancy  for  being  anybody's  librarian.  His 
laments  that  he  had  not  listened  to  Grimani's  pro- 
position may  safely  be  treated  as  conventional. 

From  Rome  Erasmus  journeyed  rapidly  by  way 
of  Bologna,  through  Lombardy,  over  the  Spliigen 
Pass  to  Chur,  Constance,  and  Strassburg,  where  he 
took  ship  on  the  Rhine  for  Holland.     We  hear  of 


1509]  Residence  in  Italy  157 

him  at  Louvain  and  Antwerp  and  then  in  England 
early  in  July,  1509.  What  was  the  fruit  of  his 
nearly  three  years  in  Italy  ?  He  had  perfected  him- 
self in  Greek,  as  far  at  least  as  he  needed  to  go  for 
the  purposes  he  had  most  at  heart.  He  was  Doctor 
Erasmus,  and  needed  no  longer  to  feel  himself  over- 
shadowed by  the  superior  display  of  some  inferior 
talent.  He  had  given  to  the  world  in  his  Adages  a 
great  and  serious  work,  which  was  welcomed  with 
the  greatest  approval  by  those  most  competent  to 
judge.  He  had  seen  for  himself  something  of  the 
life  of  that  people  which  had  done  most  to  bring 
pure  learning  to  honour.  Finally  he  had  made  per- 
sonal connections  within  the  world  of  scholars,  which 
were  likely  to  be  of  great  future  service  to  him. 

It  would  be  most  interesting  if  we  could  perceive 
with  any  distinctness  the  direct  effect  of  this  experi- 
ence upon  Erasmus'  literary  production,  but  such 
effect  cannot  be  traced  in  any  instructive  way. 
There  are  of  course  references  to  Italy  to  be  found 
henceforth  in  many  of  his  writings,  but  it  would  be 
too  much  to  say  that  the  Italian  visit  was  in  any 
way  epoch-making  for  his  literary  character.  Liter- 
ature was  not  a  thing  of  nationalities;  it  was  cosmo- 
politan, and  the  scholar  was  as  much,  or  as  little,  at 
home  in  one  place  as  in  another.  The  genius  of 
Erasmus  ripened  slowly  and  naturally,  following  the 
lines  of  its  early  choice  and  moving  on  without  note- 
worthy interruption  to  its  highest  achievement. 

Still,  few  biographers  have  failed  to  fancy  a  con- 
nection of  cause  and  effect  between  the  Italian  im- 
pressions of  Erasmus  and  the  famous  satire,  in  which 


158  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1506- 

almost  at  once  on  his  arrival  in  England  he  gave 
free  rein  to  his  criticism  of  church  and  society. 
Certainly  his  illustrations  in  the  Praise  of  Folly 
point  often  to  abuses  which  he  might  have  seen  and 
felt  in  Italy.  His  direct  attacks  upon  popes  and 
cardinals  can  hardly  fail  to  have  gained  an  added 
point  from  his  observation  at  first  hand.  What  is 
not  clear  is  that  such  stimulus  to  his  reforming  zeal 
was  anything  more  than  incidental. 

In  all  the  earlier  writing  of  Erasmus  we  have  noted 
especially  the  quality  of  the  moral  preacher.  What- 
ever he  touched  took  on  inevitably  the  tone  of 
exhortation.  And  this  same  quality  continues  to 
appear  in  all  his  work,  whenever  the  subject  rises, 
even  ever  so  little,  above  the  level  of  mere  gram- 
matical detail.  One  ought  to  have  this  prevailing 
seriousness  of  purpose  especially  in  mind  in  coming 
to  such  a  piece  of  work  as  the  Praise  of  Folly.'  Of 
all  Erasmus'  writing,  none  was  and  is  more  widely 
known  than  this.  It  is  called  a  satire  and  was  in- 
tended to  make  men  laugh.  Erasmus  had  to  apolo- 
gise for  it,  as  he  did  for  most  thing  she  wrote,  and 
in  the  introductory  epistle  to  his  dear  More  he 
apologises  in  advance  for  allowing  himself  so  lively 
a  diversion.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  men 
of  his  day  were  vastly  amused  by  it.  It  had  for 
them  the  charm  that  always  belongs  to  literary 
references  to  familiar  types  and  figures,  especially 
if  these  references  are  couched  in  colloquial  phrase. 
Erasmus  was  tolerably  sure  of  his  audience,  and 
could  count  upon  applause  from  every  class  for  the 

'  iv. ,  405-503. 


1509]  The  "  Praise  of  Folly  *'  i59 

amusement  it  got  out  of  his  criticism  of  all  other 
classes  of  men.  Yet  it  is  a  little  difficult  for  one  of 
us  to  raise  more  than  an  honest  smile  at  this  elabor- 
ate fooling.  After  all,  one  feels  the  sermon  under- 
neath, and  pays  his  tribute  to  the  author,  not 
primarily  as  a  humourist,  but  as  a  man  of  sense 
who  lightens  his  style  a  little,  to  be  sure,  yet  re- 
mains all  through  plainly  conscious  of  his  mission. 
If  one  seeks  an  analogy,  one  may  say,  perhaps,  that 
the  Praise  of  Folly  is  about  as  funny  as  an  average 
copy  of  Punch. 

Erasmus'  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Mwpta  is  as 
trifling  as  in  the  case  of  most  of  his  works.  He  tells 
More  that  he  thought  it  out  during  his  journey  from 
Italy  to  England  in  1509,  and  he  put  it  into  form  at 
More's  house  in  London  soon  after.  The  title, 
Miopias  cyKto/xiov,  he  explains  as  a  pun  on  More's 
name,  the  humour  of  it  being  that  More  was  "  as  far 
from  the  thing  as  his  name  was  near  it."  The  book 
is  written  under  the  form  of  an  oration,  a  declama- 
tio  the  author  calls  it,  delivered  by  Folly  in  person 
to  an  imaginary  audience  made  up  of  all  classes  and 
conditions  of  men.  Folly  is  a  female,  and  this  is 
quite  in  harmony  with  most  of  Erasmus'  references 
to  the  sex.  She  wears  cap  and  bells  as  her  acad- 
emic garb  and  brings  to  the  lecture-room  her  attend- 
ant spirits.  Self-love,  Flattery,  Oblivion,  Laziness, 
Pleasure,  Madness,  Wantonness.  Intemperance,  and 
Sleep.  Folly  is  the  offspring  of  Wealth  and  Youth, 
born  in  the  Fortunate  Isles,  where  all  things  grow 
without  toil,  and  nursed  by  the  jovial  nymphs, 
Drunkenness  and  Ignorance. 


i6o  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509 

The  oration  begins  by  Folly  commending  herself 
as  indispensable  to  the  well-being  of  men.  Their 
very  existence  is  owing  to  her,  for  no  man  would 
put  his  head  into  the  halter  of  marriage  if  he  thought 
it  over  carefully  beforehand  as  a  wise  man  would ; 
and  no  woman  would  marry  if  she  carefully  con- 
sidered the  sorrows  of  childbirth.  Marriage  there- 
fore is  owing  wholly  to  Madness,  the  companion  of 
Folly.  But  no  woman,  having  once  experienced 
the  pains  of  child-bearing,  would  ever  submit  herself 
to  them  again  but  for  another  of  Folly's  ministers, 
Oblivion,  who  comes  in  thus  to  save  the  race.  From 
this  first  example  we  can  see  how  Erasmus  plays 
with  the  meaning  of  the  word  "  folly."  It  is  quite 
impossible  to  define  it  by  any  one  term  which  would 
cover  his  numerous  variations,  but  we  may  see  plainly 
from  the  start  that  it  is  very  far  from  being  what  we 
mean,  in  plain  modern  English,  by  the  word  "  fool- 
ishness." It  comes  nearer  to  the  meaning  we  find 
in  Shakespeare  of  "  innocent  "  or  "  thoughtless." 
"  Folly  "  is  the  opposite  of  studied  calculation  for 
a  mere  material  end.  It  is  the  impulse  by  which 
men  perform  their  noblest  actions.  It  is  imagina- 
tion, idealism,  sacrifice  of  self  for  others.  Nowhere 
does  Erasmus  lay  down  any  such  general  definition 
as  this,  but  his  examples  show  that  some  such  mean- 
ing was  in  his  mind,  and  the  Folly  whom  he  allows 
to  praise  herself  is  therefore  really  a  very  praise- 
worthy person.  She  hates  the  materialism  of  the 
Philistine  —  the  cool,  calculating  merchant-spirit 
which  would  reduce  life  to  a  thing  of  dollars  and 
cents — and   she  finds  her  illustrations  of   what   is 


I509]  The  "  Praise  of  Folly  "  i6i 

noble  pretty  nearly  where  an  optimistic  philosopher 
of  modern  times  would  find  them. 

The  happiest  times  of  life,  says  Folly,  are  youth 
and  old  age,  and  this  for  no  reason  but  that  they  are 
the  times  most  completely  under  the  rule  of  folly, 
and  least  controlled  by  wisdom.  It  is  the  child's 
freedom  from  wisdom  that  makes  it  so  charming 
to  us ;  we  hate  a  precocious  child.  So  women  owe 
their  charm,  and  hence  their  power,  to  their  ' '  folly, ' ' 
i.  e.,  to  their  obedience  to  impulse.  "  But  if,  per- 
chance, a  woman  wants  to  be  thought  wise,  she  only 
succeeds  in  being  doubly  a  fool,  as  if  one  should 
train  a  cow  for  the  prize-ring,  a  thing  wholly  against 
nature."  A  woman  will  be  a  woman,  no  matter 
what  mask  she  wear,  and  she  ought  to  be  proud  of 
her  folly  and  make  the  most  of  it. 

In  dealing  with  Friendship,  Folly  first  reminds 
her  hearers  that  every  man  has  his  faults  and  plenty 
of  them,  and  that  everyone  is  all  too  keen  in  spying 
out  the  faults  of  others  and  forgetting  his  own.  But 
now  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  friendship  ' '  were 
it  not  for  that  which  the  Greeks  so  beautifully  call 
eurjdcuiL,  and  which  may  be  translated  '  folly  '  or 
*  good  nature.'  "  Here  Erasmus  himself  makes 
"  stultitia  "  the  equivalent  of  "  morum  facilitas." 
And  not  the  relation  of  friends  merely,  but  of  hus- 
band and  wife,  ruler  and  ruled,  scholar  and  tutor, 
all  human  relations,  in  short,  are  made  tolerable  by 
this  rule  of  human  kindness.  And  as  the  blindness 
of  love  to  others  makes  human  life  bearable,  so  Self- 
love,  one  of  Folly's  intimates,  is  the  indispensable 
aid  to  happiness,  since  if  a  man  were  continually 


i62  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509 

ashamed  of  himself,  of  his  person,  his  country,  he 
would  never  rise  to  any  worthy  action.  Courage  is 
the  very  inspiration  of  Folly,  and  the  proof  is  the 
stupid  bungling  of  great  thinkers  when  they  try  to  do 
things.  Socrates  could  not  make  a  political  speech, 
and  showed  his  wisdom  by  declaring  that  a  wise 
man  ought  to  keep  out  of  public  business.  Plato's 
famous  saying:  "  happy  the  state  that  is  ruled  by  a 
philosopher,  or  whose  ruler  is  given  to  philosophy," 
is  false,  for  history  shows  that  there  were  never 
more  unfortunate  states  than  those  so  governed. 
Theorisers,  in  short,  have  ruined  what  they  under- 
took to  manage,  but  states  have  been  saved  by  such 
divine  folly  as  that  of  Quintus  Curtius,  who,  pos- 
sessed by  some  demon  of  vainglory,  sacrificed  him- 
self to  the  infernal  gods.  Wise  men  would  condemn 
such  acts,  but  the  pens  of  eloquent  men  have  glori- 
fied them.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  even  the  virtue 
of  prudence  is  owing  to  folly, 

"  for  the  wise  man  goes  to  the  books  of  the  ancients  and 
gets  out  of  them  nothing  but  wordy  discussions,  while  the 
fool,  grappling  with  the  world  in  hand-to-hand  conflict, 
learns,  if  I  mistake  not,  the  true  prudence."  "  Modesty 
and  fear  are  the  two  great  obstacles  to  the  understanding 
of  affairs;  but  Folly,  being  hindered  by  neither  of  these, 
blushes  at  nothing  and  attempts  everything." 

The  wise  man  thinks  of  reason  only  and  leaves  all 
the  passions  to  Folly,  but  when  this  kind  of  thing 
has  its  perfect  work,  as  among  the  Stoics,  then  you 
have  left 

"  not  so  much  a  man  as  a  new  kind  of  god  that  never  yet 


I509]  The  '' Praise  of  Folly  "  163 

existed  anywhere  and  never  will;  or  rather,  to  say  it 
plainly,  a  marble  image  of  a  man,  dull  and  almost  devoid 
of  human  sensibility;  a  man  who  measures  everything  by 
the  line,  never  makes  any  mistakes  himself,  but  has  the 
eye  of  a  lynx  for  the  least  failings  of  others.  That 's  the 
kind  of  a  beast  your  truly  wise  man  is  !  "      -v,^ 

But  who  has  any  use  for  such  a  creature  ?  Who 
would  have  him  for  a  ruler,  a  general,  a  husband,  a 
friend  ? 

"Who  would  not  prefer  one  taken  out  of  the  very 
midst  of  the  crowd  of  fools,  who  being  a  fool  himself 
would  know  how  to  command  and  obey  fools,  who  would 
be  agreeable  to  his  kind,  namely,  the  great  majority  of 
men,  pleasant  to  his  wife,  merry  with  his  friends,  a  lively 
table-companion,  a  good-tempered  comrade,  in  short  a 
man  '  qui  nihil  humani  a  se  alienum  putet ' — '  who  holds 
nothing  human  foreign  to  himself.'  " 

This  comes  as  near  a  definition  of  his  "  stultus  " 
as  any  hinted  at  by  Erasmus.  In  this  sense  the 
book  might  have  been  called  "  the  praise  of  human 
nature,"  for  "  wisdom  "  is  treated  systematically 
as  meaning  something  contrary  to  natural  human 
instinct.  Such  over-wise  wisdom  embitters  life,  but 
folly  makes  it  sweet  and  precious. 

"  Now,  I  think,  you  see  what  would  happen  if  men 
were  wise  all  the  time.  Faith !  we  should  have  need  of 
another  clay  and  another  Prometheus  for  a  potter.  But 
I,  Folly,  sometimes  by  ignorance,  sometimes  by  thought- 
lessness, sometimes  by  forgetf  ulness  of  evils  or  the  hope 
of  good,  and  scattering  the  sweetest  pleasures,  so  comfort 


164  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509 

men  in  the  greatest  misfortunes  that  they  are  not  glad  to 
die  even  when  the  measure  of  the  Fates  is  fulfilled  and 
life  has  actually  left  them.  The  less  reason  they  have  to 
cling  to  life  the  more  they  rejoice  in  living,  so  far  are  they 
from  being  wearied  with  its  burden." 

Real  misery  is  to  be  out  of  harmony  with  Nature — 
shall  we  call  man  miserable  because  he  cannot  fly 
like  the  birds,  nor  walk  on  all  fours  like  beasts  ? 
"  We  might  as  well  call  a  war-horse  unhappy  be- 
cause he  doesn't  know  grammar  and  cannot  eat 
pie."  So  Erasmus  goes  on,  in  extravagant  praise, 
to  glorify  Nature  as  contrasted  with  Art,  That  life 
alone  is  happy  which  comes  near  to  Nature,  as  that 
of  bees  and  birds;  the  nearer  these  natural  creatures 
are  brought  to  the  life  of  man,  the  more  they  de- 
generate. Of  all  men  the  happiest  are  those  we 
call  * '  moriofies, "  *  *  stultos, "  "  fatuos, "  "  bliteos  ' ' ; 
they  have  no  fears,  no  ambitions,  neither  envy  nor 
love.  They  are  always  merry ;  everyone  likes  them 
and  pets  them ;  the  very  beasts  recognise  in  them  a 
kind  of  sacred  being.  Princes  cannot  live  without 
them,  and  value  their  plain-speaking  more  than  the 
flatteries  of  their  counsellors. 

How  much  pleasure  comes  in  this  world  from 
hobbies!  One  man  delights  in  hunting,  with  all  its 
absurd  ceremonies;  another  has  a  rage  for  building; 
others  are  chasing  after  new  inventions,  hunting  for 
a  fifth  essence.  Others  take  to  gaming  and  go  to 
ruin  with  it,  but  Folly  is  not  quite  clear  whether 
to  claim  these  as  her  children  or  not.  She  has  no 
doubt,  however,  about  those  who  show  their  folly 
by  superstitious  observances  in  religion,  and  here,  it 


I509]  The  "Praise  of  Folly '*  165 

will  be  observed,  Erasmus'  definition  of  folly  gradu- 
ally shifts.  From  this  point  on  it  begins  to  slide 
over  into  a  meaning  something  more  nearly  like 
what  we  should  be  inclined  to  give  it.  Folly  her- 
self cannot  be  consistent  when  she  comes  to  religious 
fraud.  Self-deception  is  a  very  useful  and  pleasant 
thing,  but  no  gentleness  of  judgment  is  due  to  those 

"  who  hug  the  silly  though  pleasant  persuasion  that  if 
they  see  a  wooden  or  painted  Polyphemus- Christopher, 
they  will  not  die  that  day;  or  who  salute  a  statue  of  St. 
Barbara  with  a  fixed  formula  of  words  if  they  get  home 
safe  from  a  battle;  or,  if  they  call  upon  Saint  Erasmus  on 
certain  days  with  candles  and  prayers,  fancy  that  they 
will  soon  get  rich.  Now  they  have  invented  a  George- 
Hercules,  like  a  new  Hippolytus,  and  come  precious  near 
worshipping  the  very  horse  of  him,  decked  out  with 
breastplates  and  ornaments."  "  But  what  shall  I  say  of 
those  who  flatter  themselves  so  sweetly  with  counterfeit 
pardons  for  their  crimes,  who  have  measured  off  the 
duration  of  Purgatory  without  an  error  as  if  by  a  water- 
clock,  into  ages,  years,  months,  and  days  like  the 
multiplication-table  ?  .  .  Now  suppose  me  some  trades- 
man, or  soldier,  or  judge,  who  by  paying  out  a  penny 
from  all  his  stealings,  thinks  the  whole  slough  of  his  life 
is  cleaned  out  at  once — all  his  perjuries,  lusts,  drunken- 
nesses, all  his  quarrels,  murders,  cheats,  treacheries, 
falsehoods,  bought  off  by  a  bargain  and  bought  off  in 
such  a  way  that  he  may  now  begin  over  again  with  a  new 
circle  of  crimes  !  .  .  .  And  is  n't  it  much  the  same 
thing  when  the  several  countries  claim  for  themselves 
each  its  special  saint  with  his  special  function  and  his 
special  forms  of  worship  ? — as,  for  example,  this  one  is 
good  for  the  toothache,  that  one  helps  women  in.  travail, 


i66  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509 

another  restores  stolen  property;  this  one  shines  upon 
shipwreck  and  that  one  takes  care  of  the  flocks  and  so 
on — for  it  would  be  too  long  a  story  to  go  through  the 
whole  list.  There  are  some  that  are  good  for  more 
things  than  one  and  of  these  especially  the  virgin  mother 
of  God,  to  whom  the  mass  of  men  now  pay  more  honour 
than  to  the  Son," 

And  yet  after  all,  the  things  men  get  from  the  saints 
are  only  the  appurtenances  of  Folly. 

The  world  is  full  of  fools,  yet  the  priests  are  glad 
to  get  them  all  for  their  own  profit. 

"  But  if  some  hateful  wise  man  were  to  arise  and  say 
what  is  true: — '  to  live  well  is  the  way  to  die  well;  you 
will  best  get  rid  of  your  sins  by  adding  to  your  money 
hatred  of  vice,  tears,  vigils,  prayers  and  fasting,  and  a 
better  life;  the  saint  will  help  you  if  you  imitate  his  life  ' 
— I  say  if  a  wise  man  were  to  come  prating  such  stuff  as 
this,  how  much  happiness  he  would  destroy  and  what 
trouble  he  would  bring  upon  mortals  !  " 

There  is  no  class  of  fools  to  whom  Erasmus  pays 
his  respects  with  heartier  good  will  than  to  those 
whom  he  calls  "  grammarians."  Folly  claims  these 
for  her  choicest  sons.  Nothing  could  be  more 
wretched  than  their  profession  were  it  not  for  their 
foolish  self-esteem  and  the  skill  with  which  they 
make  others  have  as  good  an  opinion  of  them  as 
themselves.  The  pettiness  of  their  aims,  the  nasti- 
ness  of  their  schoolrooms,  the  tumult  of  their  pupils, 
are  all  concealed  by  the  friendly  aid  of  Folly,  who 
makes  them  believe  themselves  "  rulers  of  a  king- 
dom as  great  as  that  of  Phalaris  or  Dionysius. " 


EVERYONE  HAS  HIS  HOBBY. 


pilqrim  folly. 


"  FOLLY  "    CONCLUDES    HER    LECTURE. 

HOLBEIN'S  ILLUSTRATIONS  TO  THE  "  PRAISE  OF  FOLLY." 


I509]  The  *'  Praise  of  Folly  "  167 

"  What  a  joy  if  they  find  out  who  was  the  mother  of 
Anchises  or  discover  some  little  word  unknown  to  the 
vulgar,  for  instance,  '  bubsequa"  (a  cowherd),  *  bovinator ' 
(a  brawler),  '  manticulator  '  (a  cut-purse),  or  dig  up  some- 
where a  piece  of  an  old  rock,  cut  with  worn-out  letters 
— by  Jove  !  what  bragging,  what  triumphs,  what  glori- 
fication !  as  if  they  had  conquered  Africa  or  taken 
Babylon." 

The  grammarians  enjoy  nothing  so  much  as  rubbing 
each  other's  back — unless  it  be  roundly  abusing 
each  other. 

The  quibblings  of  the  philosophers  are  among 
Folly's  choicest  products,  and  from  these  she  runs 
on  naturally  to  Erasmus'  especial  black  beasts,  the 
scholastic  theologians.  Quite  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Epistolce  obscuroriim  viroriim,  but  more  decently, 
he  enumerates  the  problems  which,  so  Folly  says, 
chiefly  interest  them, — 

"  whether  there  was  any  instant  of  time  in  the  divine 
generation  ?  whether  there  was  more  than  one  '  filiation  ' 
-in  Christ?  is  it  a  possible  proposition  that  the  Father 
could  hate  the  Son  ?  Could  God  have  taken  the  form  of 
a  woman,  a  devil,  an  ass,  a  squash,  or  a  stone  ?  How 
the  squash  would  have  preached,  done  miracles,  hung 
upon  the  cross  ?  What  would  Peter  have  consecrated  if 
he  had  celebrated  the  Eucharist  while  Christ  was  still 
hanging  on  the  cross  ?  etc." 

Not  the  eyes  of  Lynceus,  which  could  see  through  a 
stone  wall,  could  penetrate  the  refinements  of  these 
people.  And  these  difficulties  are  all  increased  by 
the  multitude  of  the  schools. 


i68  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509 

"  so  that  one  might  sooner  get  out  of  a  labyrinth  than 
out  of  the  windings  of  Realists,  Nominalists,  Thomists, 
Albertists,  Occamists,  Scotists,  And  these  not  all  by 
any  means,  only  the  chief  of  them.  In  them  all  there  is 
so  much  learning,  so  much  refinement,  that  I  should  say 
the  very  apostles  themselves  would  have  to  be  of  another 
spirit  if  they  were  compelled  to  discuss  these  matters 
with  this  new  race  of  theologians.  Paul  knew  something 
about  faith;  but  when  he  says  '  faith  is  the  substance 
of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen,'  that 
is  far  from  being  a  definition  fit  for  a  Magister  j  and 
though  he  knew  well  enough  about  charity,  his  definition 
and  division  of  it  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  his  first 
letter  to  the  Corinthians  was  by  no  means  good  dialect- 
ics." "  The  apostles  knew  the  mother  of  Jesus,  but 
which  of  them  has  shown  as  philosophically  as  our  theo- 
logians have  done,  how  she  was  preserved  from  the  sin 
of  Adam  ?  Peter  received  the  keys,  and  from  one  who 
would  not  have  given  them  to  an  unworthy  keeper,  but  I 
doubt  whether  he  ever  reached  the  subtilty  of  knowing 
how  one  who  has  no  knowledge  can  hold  the  keys  of 
knowledge."  "  The  apostles  worshipped,  but  in  spirit, 
following  simply  that  apostolic  rule: — '  God  is  a  spirit, 
and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and 
in  truth  ' ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that  it  was  revealed  to 
them  that  an  image  drawn  with  a  crayon  on  the  wall  was 
to  be  worshipped,  provided  only  it  have  two  fingers  held 
upright,  hair  flowing,  and  three  rays  in  the  halo  about  its 
head.  For  who  can  understand  these  things  unless  he 
has  ground  out  six  and  thirty  years  in  the  study  of 
physics  and  the  superhuman  notions  of  Aristotle  and  the 
Scotists  ? 

"  Meanwhile  the   actual   words   of   the  apostles   are 
utterly  neglected.     While  they  keep  up  their  fooleries  in 


I509J  The  "  Praise  of  Folly  "  169 

the  schools,  they  fancy  that,  like  Atlas  in  the  poets,  they 
are  holding  up  the  tottering  Church  with  their  syllogistic 
pillars,  and  what  joy  they  take  in  moulding  and  re- 
moulding Scripture  according  to  their  will  as  if  it  were 
made  of  wax;  yet  their  own  conclusions,  if  a  few  school- 
men have  subscribed  to  them,  they  think  more  weighty 
than  the  laws  of  Solon  or  the  decretals  of  popes,  and  like 
censors  of  the  world,  if  anything  does  not  square  to  the 
line  with  their  conclusions  implicit  and  explicit,  they  de- 
clare as  by  an  oracle  '  this  proposition  is  scandalous;  this 
is  lacking  in  reverence;  this  smacks  of  heresy;  this  has  n't 
the  right  sound.'  So  that,  by  this  time,  neither  Baptism, 
nor  Gospel,  nor  Paul,  nor  Peter,  nor  St.  Jerome,  nor 
Augustine — nay,  not  even  the  most  Aristotelian  Thomas 
himself,  can  make  a  man  a  Christian  unless  the  reckon- 
ing of  these  bachelors  be  added." 

The  same  method  of  direct  denunciation,  with  no 
special  reference  to  the  main  thesis  of  Folly,  is  pur- 
sued in  the  case  of  the  monks,  or  "  religious,"  both 
titles  false,  Erasmus  says,  for  the  greater  part  of 
them  are  as  far  as  possible  from  religion,  and  there 
is  no  kind  of  men  whom  you  are  more  apt  to  meet 
in  all  places.  They  pride  themselves  upon  their 
ignorance,  carry  the  psalm-books  they  cannot  read 
into  the  churches,  and  bray  out  their  words  as  if  they 
could  thereby  please  the  ear  of  God.  Some  of  them 
crowd  the  taverns,  waggons,  and  ships,  showing  off 
their  poverty  and  filth  and  howling  for  alms.  Yet 
the  merry  knaves  try  to  pass  themselves  off  as  living 
the  life  of  the  apostles. 

"What  a  joke  it  is  that  they  do  all  things  by  rule,  as 
it  were  by  a  kind  of  sacred  mathematics;  as,  for  instance, 


I70  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509 

how  many  knots  their  shoes  must  be  tied  with,  of  what 
colour  everything  must  be,  what  variety  in  their  garb,  of 
what  material,  how  many  straws'  breadth  to  their  girdle, 
of  what  form  and  of  how  many  bushels'  capacity  their 
cowl,  how  many  fingers  broad  their  hair,  and  how  many 
hours  they  may  sleep.  Now  who  cannot  see  what  an  un- 
equal equality  this  is,  when  there  is  such  a  variety  of 
persons  and  tastes  ?  and  yet  with  all  this  nonsense,  they 
not  only  make  light  of  others,  but  come  to  despise  one 
another,  and  these  men  who  profess  apostolic  charity 
make  a  terrible  row  at  a  dress  girded  in  another  fashion 
or  at  a  colour  a  little  darker  in  shade.  Some  of  them  are 
so  very  *  religious  '  that  they  wear  no  outer  garment  but 
one  of  hair-cloth,  with  soft  linen  underneath;  others  on 
the  contrary  wear  linen  without  and  woollen  within. 
Others  again  would  as  soon  touch  poison  as  money,  but 
meanwhile  make  free  with  wine  and  women.  They  are 
all  trying  not  to  agree  in  their  manner  of  life;  none  of 
them  to  follow  the  example  of  Christ,  but  all  to  be  differ- 
ent one  from  the  other.     .     .     . 

"  The  greater  part  of  them  have  such  faith  in  their 
ceremonies  and  human  traditions  that  they  think  one 
heaven  is  not  reward  enough  for  such  great  doings, 
never  that  the  time  will  come  when  Christ  shall  set  all 
this  aside  and  claim  his  rule  of  charity.  One  will  show 
his  belly  stuffed  with  every  sort  of  fish;  another  will  pour 
out  a  hundred  bushels  of  psalms;  another  will  count  up 
myriads  of  fasts  and  make  up  for  them  all  again  by 
almost  bursting  himself  at  a  single  dinner.  Another  will 
bring  forward  such  a  heap  of  ceremonies  that  seven  ships 
would  hardly  hold  them;  another  will  boast  that  for  sixty 
years  he  has  never  touched  a  penny  except  with  double 
gloves  on  his  hands;  another  wears  a  cowl  so  greasy  and 
filthy  that  no  sailor  would  think  it  decent.     Another  will 


1509]  The  "  Praise  of  Folly  "  171 

boast  that  for  eleven  lusters  he  has  led  the  life  of  a 
sponge,  always  fixed  to  the  same  spot;  another  will  dis- 
play his  voice  hoarse  with  much  chanting;  another  a 
drowsiness  contracted  from  solitary  living;  another  a 
tongue  palsied  by  long  silence.  But  Christ  will  interrupt 
their  endless  bragging  and  will  demand: — *  whence  this 
new  kind  of  Judaism  ?  One  law  and  that  my  own  I 
recognise,  and  that  is  the  only  thing  I  hear  nothing  about. 
In  that  day  I  promised  openly  and  using  no  twisted  par- 
ables, the  inheritance  of  my  Father,  not  to  cowls  and 
prayers  and  fastings,  but  to  deeds  of  love.'  And  yet  no 
one  dares  reproach  those  people,  who  belong,  as  it 
were,  to  another  commonwealth  —  and  especially  the 
Begging  Friars,  because  they  know  everybody's  secrets 
through  what  they  call  '  confessions.'  " 

Erasmus  more  than  hints  that  the  friars  had  ways 
enough  of  playing  fast  and  loose  with  the  secrets 
confided  to  them,  and,  running  together  his  assaults 
upon  the  schoolmen  and  the  monks,  shows  up  the 
scholastic  preaching  of  the  friars  by  some  excellent 
specimens. 

"  I  myself  have  heard  one  distinguished  fool — I  beg 
his  pardon,  a  scholar  I  would  say — who,  in  a  famous 
sermon  on  the  mystery  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  in  order  to 
show  his  uncommon  learning  and  please  the  ears  of  the 
theologians,  took  a  quite  new  method,  namely  from 
the  letters,  syllables,  and  discourse  itself  and  then  from 
the  agreement  of  nouns  and  verbs,  of  adjective  and  sub- 
stantive, to  the  great  admiration  of  some,  but  causing 
others  to  grumble  in  the  words  of  Horace:  '  what  is  all 
this  rot  about  ?  ' 

"  At  last  he  got  the  thing  down  so  fine,  that  he  showed 


172  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509 

as  plainly  as  any  mathematician  could  chalk  it  out,  that 
the  mystery  of  the  whole  Trinity  is  expressed  in  the  rudi- 
ments of  grammar.  This  most  highly  theological  person 
sweat  away  for  eight  months  over  that  speech,  so  that  the 
whole  sight  of  his  eyes  ran  into  his  wits  and  he  is  now  as 
blind  as  a  mole;  but  the  creature  cares  naught  for  his 
eyesight  and  thinks  his  glory  very  cheaply  bought. 

"  Then  I  have  heard  another,  an  octogenarian  and 
such  a  theologian  that  you  would  think  Scotus  had  been 
born  again  in  him.  He  set  out  to  explain  the  mystery 
of  the  name  of  Jesus  and  showed  with  marvellous  subtilty 
that  in  those  letters  lay  concealed  whatever  could  be  pre- 
dicated of  him.  For  a  word  that  is  inflected  with  but 
three  cases  is  evidently  the  image  of  the  divine  Trinity, 
Then  because  the  first  case,  Jesus,  ends  in  s,  the  second, 
Jesum,  in  m,  the  third,  Jesu,  in  //,  beneath  this  fact  there 
lies  an  unspeakable  mystery,  the  three  letters  indicating, 
of  course,  that  he  is  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end. 
Still  there  remained  a  mystery  more  obscure  than  all  this, 
according  to  the  principles  of  mathematics:  he  so  divided 
the  word  Jesus  into  two  equal  parts  that  the  third  letter 
was  left  alone  in  the  middle;  then  he  showed  that  this 
was  called  by  the  Hebrews  syn  and  that  syn  in  the  lan- 
guage, I  believe,  of  the  Scots  \^Scotoruni\,  means  sin,  and 
hence  it  was  plainly  demonstrated  that  Jesus  was  he  who 
should  take  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 

The  assault  on  the  friars  ends  with  some  amusing 
criticism  of  their  manner  of  public  speaking,  which 
they  seem  to  have  acquired  by  misapplying  and  ex- 
aggerating the  good  principles  of  rhetoric  they  have 
somehow  picked  up  here  and  there. 

As  to  secular  princes  and  courtiers,  Folly  borrows 
from  the  oration  of  "  her  friend  Erasmus  "  to  Duke 


I509]  The  "  Praise  of  Folly  "  173 

Philip,  and  adds  little  to  the  commonplaces  of  criti- 
cism upon  their  wild  and  reckless  living  and  their 
disregard  of  the  good  of  their  subjects.  She  carries 
her  argument  along  from  secular  to  clerical  princes 
and  finally  reaches  the  pope,  to  whom  she  pays  her 
respects  in  this  monumental  passage : 

"  Those  supreme  pontiffs,  who  stand  in  the  place  of 
Christ,  if  they  should  try  to  imitate  his  life,  that  is  his 
poverty,  his  toil,  his  teaching,  his  cross,  and  his  scorn  of 
this  world,  or  if  they  should  think  of  the  meaning  of 
'  pope,'  that  is  '  father,'  or  even  of  '  most  holy,'  what 
position  in  the  world  could  be  more  dreadful  ?  Who 
would  buy  it  with  all  his  resources,  or,  when  he  had 
bought  it,  would  defend  it  by  sword  and  poison  and  every 
violence  ?  What  joys  they  would  lose,  if  once  wisdom 
should  get  hold  of  them!  Wisdom,  say  I  ?  nay,  even  a 
grain  of  that  salt  Christ  tells  us  of.  What  wealth,  what 
honours,  riches,  conquests,  dispensations,  taxes,  indul- 
gences, horses,  mules,  guards,  pleasures,  they  would  lose! 
and  in  their  place  they  would  have  vigils,  pray- 
ers, fasts,  tears,  sermons,  study,  groans  and  a  thousand 
other  painful  toils  of  the  same  sort. 

"And  we  ought  not  to  forget  that  such  a  mass  of 
scribes,  copyists,  notaries,  advocates,  promoters,  secre- 
taries, mule-drivers,  grooms,  money-changers,  procurers, 
and  gayer  persons  yet  I  might  mention,  did  I  not  respect 
your  ears, — that  this  whole  swarm  which  now  burdens — 
I  beg  your  pardon — honours  the  Roman  See,  would  be 
driven  to  starvation.  This  would  be  an  inhuman  and 
an  abominable  deed,  but  still  more  execrable  would  it 
be  that  those  chief  princes  of  the  Church  and  true  lights 
of  the  world  should  be  reduced  to  scrip  and  staff.  As  it 
is  now,  if  there  is  any  work  to  be  done,  it  is  left  to  Peter 


174  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509 

and  Paul,  who  have  plenty  of  leisure  for  it;  but  if  there 
is  anything  of  show  or  of  pleasure,  they  keep  that  for 
themselves.  And  so  it  happens  that,  through  my  assist- 
ance, there  is  scarce  any  class  of  men  who  live  more 
jovially  and  less  burdened  with  care.  They  think  they 
are  fulfilling  the  rule  of  Christ  if  they  play  the  part  of 
bishops  with  mystical  and  almost  theatrical  decorations, 
ceremonies,  titles  of  benediction,  of  reverence,  of  sanc- 
tity, with  blessings  and  cursings.  Doing  miracles  is 
quite  antiquated  and  out  of  date;  to  teach  the  people 
is  hard  work;  to  interpret  the  holy  scripture  is  a  matter 
for  the  schools;  praying  is  tedious;  shedding  tears  is  a 
wretched  business  fit  for  women;  to  be  poor  is  base;  to 
be  conquered  is  dishonourable  and  unworthy  of  him  who 
will  scarce  allow  the  greatest  of  kings  to  kiss  his  blessed 
feet;  to  die  is  unbecoming  and  to  be  lifted  on  a  cross  is 
infamous." 

The  end  of  the  MwpCa  is  an  attempt  on  Folly's 
part  to  support  her  case  by  references  to  authority, 
and  especially,  of  course,  to  the  classics  and  to 
Scripture.  It  is  laboured,  and  neither  very  ingenious 
nor  very  amusing.  The  joke-machine  goes  a  little 
hard  at  this  stage  of  its  progress — yet  the  solid 
seriousness  of  the  author's  purpose  is  as  clear  here 
as  anywhere.  In  his  references  to  Scripture  he  can- 
not resist  the  temptation  to  give  a  parting  fling  at 
the  foolish  interpretations  which  it  was  the  most 
important  work  of  his  life  to  correct.  For  instance, 
he  makes  Folly  say : 

"  I  was  myself  but  lately  present  at  a  theological  dis- 
cussion— for  I  often  go  to  such  meetings — when  some- 
one asked  what  authority  there  was  in  Holy  Writ  for 


I509]  The  "  Praise  of  Folly  "  175 

burning  heretics  instead  of  convincing  them  by  argu- 
ment, A  certain  hard  old  man,  a  theologian  by  the  very 
look  of  him,  answered  with  great  scorn,  that  the  apostle 
Paul  had  laid  down  this  law  when  he  said  '  hereticum 
homtnem  post  unam  et  alteram  correptionem  devita  ' — 'avoid 
an  heretic  after  one  or  two  attempts  to  convince  him,' 
And  when  he  had  yelled  out  these  same  words  over  and 
over  again  and  some  were  wondering  what  had  struck  the 
man,  he  finally  explained  '  de  vita  toUendum  hereticum  ' 
— '  the  heretic  must  be  put  out  of  life.'  Some  burst  out 
laughing,  but  there  were  not  wanting  some  to  whom  this 
commentary  seemed  perfectly  theological." 

An  opportunity  for  Erasmus  to  express  his  usual 
detestation  of  war  is  furnished  by  his  references  to 
the  papal  warfare,  which  seemed  to  him  the  most 
unjustifiable  of  all  forms  of  military  action.  Indeed 
one  may  fairly  say  that  in  this  year,  1 509,  Erasmus 
had  clearly  in  mind  and  had  already  given  expres- 
sion to  the  views  which  were  to  form  the  ground- 
work of  the  Reformation,  This  was  the  year  before 
Luther's  journey  to  Rome,  and  Erasmus  himself 
was  just  fresh  from  the  impressions  of  an  Italian 
residence.  The  worldly  lives  of  clergymen,  from 
pope  to  friar,  the  burden  of  monastic  vows,  the 
ignorance  of  theologians  and  their  scholastic  back- 
ers, the  wickedness  of  indulgences,  the  follies  and 
superstitions  of  saint-worship,  the  cruel  weight  of 
ceremonies  which  had  no  support  in  any  worthy 
authority — all  these  things  were  as  boldly  pointed 
out  by  Erasmus  in  1509  as  ever  they  were  to  be 
shown  by  any  reformer  of  a  later  day.  The  Praise 
of  Folly  carried  his  proclamation  into  a  thousand 


176  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509 

hands  that  would  never  have  touched  the  more 
sober,  but  not  more  serious,  criticism  of  less  broadly 
human  critics. 

Naturally  the  Praise  of  Folly  called  forth  a  cer- 
tain criticism  from  individuals  belonging  to  some  of 
the  classes  attacked.  To  this  criticism  Erasmus  re- 
plied only  by  renewed  and  more  bitter  comment  in 
the  same  spirit.  Quite  different,  however,  was  the 
admonition  he  received  from  his  excellent  friend, 
Martin  Dorpius  of  Louvain,  and  different  to  corre- 
spond was  the  spirit  of  his  reply.'  He  addresses 
Dorpius  throughout  as  a  sincere  man  and  scholar, 
whose  view  had  been  obscured  by  the  misunder- 
standings of  others;  in  fact,  when  you  came  to  the 
bottom  of  it,  of  one  man,  by  whom  is  doubtless 
meant  the  unhappy  scapegoat,  Nicholas  Egmund. 
Dorpius  had  disapproved  the  Moria  chiefly  on  ac- 
count of  what  seemed  to  him  its  flippant  tone  and 
the  tendency  it  must  have  to  excite  hostility  against 
really  good  and  valuable  things.  Erasmus  defends 
himself  on  the  ground  that  the  flippancy  is  only  ap- 
parent, a  mere  lightness  of  touch  to  commend  the 
serious  purpose  underneath.  He  had  been  bitterly 
abused,  but  he  abuses  no  man ;  on  the  contrary,  he 
has  taken  great  pains  to  avoid  any  personal  attack  or 
even  an  attack  upon  any  class  of  men  as  such. 

"  I  had  in  view  no  other  object  in  the  Moria  than 
I  have  had  in  other  works,  but  used  only  a  different 
method."  He  mentions  specially  the  Enchiridion, 
the  Institutio  Principis,  and  the  Panegyric  on  Philip 
of  Burgundy,  serious  works  enough  in  all  conscience. 

^  Epistola  apologetica  ad  Martinum  Dorpium  Theologum,  ix.,  l. 


1509]  The  "  Praise  of  Folly  "  177 

He  gives  the  familiar  story  of  the  composition  and 
first  publication  of  the  book.  He  had  just  returned 
from  Italy,  ill  and  worn  out  by  the  journey.  He 
was  at  More's  house  and  began  to  play  with  the 
idea  of  the  Moria,  not  with  any  intention  of  publica- 
tion, but  just  to  while  away  the  time.*  He  showed 
his  friends  what  he  had  written,  only  that  he  might 
enjoy  his  laugh  the  better  in  company.  They  liked 
it,  and  not  only  urged  him  to  finish  it,  but  sent  it 
over  to  Paris,  and  there  it  was  printed,  but  from 
corrupt  and  even  mutilated  copy.  How  displeasing 
it  was  Dorpius  may  judge  from  the  fact  that  within 
a  few  months  it  was  reprinted  seven  times  in  different 
places.  "  If  you  think  this  was  a  foolish  perform- 
ance on  my  part,  I  shall  not  deny  it." 

Yet  it  has  been  approved  by  the  most  famous 
theologians,  men  of  the  highest  character  and  learn- 
ing, "  who  have  never  been  more  friendly  with  me 
than  since  its  publication,  and  who  like  it  far  better 
than  I  do."  He  would  give  their  names  and  titles 
were  it  not  that  this  might  expose  them  to  the  abuse 
of 

"  those  three  theologians  or  rather,  when  you  come  to 
that,  oi  that  one y  "  If  I  should  paint  him  in  his  true 
colours  no  one  could  wonder  that  the  Moria  is  displeas- 
ing to  such  a  man ;  nay,  I  should  be  sorry  if  it  did  not 
displease  such  people,  though  it  does  not  suit  me  either. 
Yet  it  comes  the  nearer  to  pleasing  me  because  it  does 
not  suit  such  characters  as  that." 


'  He  says  elsewhere  that  More  was  the  cause  {fiiutor)6i  his  writing 
the  book,     iii.',  474-D. 


178  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509 

If  Dorpius  could  only  look  into  his  soul  he  would 
see  how  many  things  Erasmus  has  not  touched  upon, 
lest  he  give  offence,  and  lest  he  say  anything  indecent 
or  seditious. 

Our  analysis  of  the  Moria  is  well  sustained  by 
Erasmus'  attempt  here  to  show  that  by  stultitia  he 
does  not  mean  mere  human  foolishness.  "  There  is 
no  danger  that  any  person  will  here  imagine  that 
Christ  and  the  apostles  were  really  fools."  They 
only  had  a  certain  element  of  weakness  common  to 
all  humanity,  and  which,  compared  with  the  eternal 
wisdom,  may  well  seem  not  altogether  wise.  The 
tone  of  the  whole  defence  is  admirably  calm,  and 
shows  a  sincere  regard  for  Dorpius,  though,  like 
certain  islanders,  he  does  need  to  have  a  joke  ex- 
plained now  and  then. 

Erasmus  did  not  exaggerate  the  immense  and  im- 
mediate popularity  of  the  Moria.  Our  bibliography 
enumerates  forty-three  editions  in  the  author's  life- 
time, and  it  has  been  translated  and  reprinted  since 
then  an  infinite  number  of  times.  Holbein  amused 
himself  by  decorating  the  margin  of  his  copy  with 
these  rude  but  clever  wood-cuts  which  have  come  to 
be  the  permanent  types  of  the  various  orders  of 
Erasmian  fools. 


CHAPTER  VI 

ENGLAND  (1509-1514) — THE  NEW  TESTAMENT — 
THE  "  DE  COPIA  VERBORUM  ET  RERUM  " 

THE  third  visit  of  Erasmus  to  England  was 
brought  about,  if  we  may  trust  his  own  ac- 
count of  it,  by  very  urgent  requests  on  the  part  of 
his  English  friends.  He  liked  to  speak  of  the 
"  mountains  of  gold  "  which  had  been  promised 
him  if  he  would  only  come  thither,  and  it  was  a 
delightful  grievance  for  him  to  fancy  that  he  had 
been  torn  from  his  beloved  Italy,  where  he  had  con- 
sistently complained  of  his  lot,  and  to  which  he 
looked  back  as  the  source  of  all  his  later  physical 
ills,  only  to  suffer  a  new  series  of  misfortunes  in 
England.  The  fact  very  likely  was  that,  hearing 
of  the  change  of  government  in  England,  and  hav- 
ing done  what  he  went  to  Italy  to  do,  he  hoped  for 
some  advantage  from  a  move,  and  sounded  his 
English  friends  on  the  prospect.  Our  earliest  clue 
is  a  letter  from  Mountjoy,'  to  which,  curiously 
enough,  the  date  1497  has  been  affixed  in  the  col- 
lection. Mountjoy  speaks  of  receiving  two  letters 
from  him,  which  are,  unfortunately,  lost  to  us,  and 
also  of  having  written  him  personally  a  congratul- 

'  iii.',  7-E. 

179 


i8o  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

atory  letter  on  the  completion  of  his  Adages,  which 
letter,  together  with  the  bearer,  had  been  lost  on  the 
way.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  so  far  as  Mount- 
joy  was  concerned,  Erasmus  had  not,  in  any  strict 
sense,  been  ' '  invited  ' '  to  come  into  England.  Evid- 
ently he  had  complained  of  his  misfortunes  in  Italy, 
and  consulted  with  Mountjoy  about  a  change : 

"  Your  letters  gave  me  at  once  joy  and  pain.  That 
you  should,  as  you  ought,  familiarly  and  as  a  friend, 
confide  to  your  Mountjoy  your  plans,  your  thoughts, 
your  misfortunes  and  troubles,  was  a  joy  indeed;  but  to 
learn  that  you,  my  dearest  friend,  to  whom  above  all  I 
desire  to  be  of  service,  were  assailed  by  such  varied 
shafts  of  fortune,  that  was  a  grief." 

Even  before  the  king's  death  a  letter  *  had  been  sent 
to  Erasmus  by  the  Prince  of  Wales,  but  it  contained 
nothing  more  than  a  formal  compliment  upon  the 
great  clearness  of  his  style,  and  a  mild  reproof  that 
he  had  had  the  bad  tact  to  recall  to  him  the  recent 
loss  of  his  royal  brother,  the  King  of  Castile.  Next 
time,  he  hopes,  he  may  write  of  something  more 
agreeable. 

But,  if  he  was  not "  called"  to  England,  certainly 
Erasmus  had  reason  to  believe  he  would  be  welcome 
there.  The  accession  of  the  young  king,  whose 
generous  disposition  and  taste  for  the  refinements 
of  life  were  well  known,  seemed  to  open  up  a  vista 
of  promise  for  all  kinds  of  talent.     Mountjoy  writes  ' : 

'iii.*,  1840-E.  The  letter,  1839-E,  from  Henry  as  king,  used  by 
Mr.  Froude  at  this  point  to  show  how  urgently  Erasmus  had  been 
invited  to  England,  belongs  probably  many  years  afterwards. 

»iii.',  7-E. 


NOVVM  TESTA 

MENTVM  OMNE,  MVI^TCy  QVAM  ANTEHAC  DI 
ligcntiusabERASMO  ROTERODAmo  rccogni'cu.eme 
datum  actranflatum,no  folutnad  Grxcam  uentate.ucrum 
etiam  ad  multorii  utriuf^  lingua:  codicum.eQruinc|;  uetecu 
fimul  Si  ctnedatorum  fidem ,  poftremo  ad  probacinimoru 
automtn  dtaa'onem.emedationem  8C  interprctacione,  ptaE' 
dpue  Origents,Athanarii,Na2iaa2eni,Chtyfo{lonii,  Cy^ 
rifli.Theophyla(5y,Hicronj'mi,  Cypriani,  Ambrofq.  Hua^ 
rii,Auguftini,una  cu  Annocanonibus  recogtiias,acjnagna 
aoefSone  locupletaa's.  qua  Icdloretn  doceant.  quid  (jiara/ 1 
none  mutaru  uc.  Qui(cjuis  igitur  amas  uera  Theologiam.le 
ge.cogaoIce,acdcindciudica.Necj}  (larim  offcnderejlquid 
mutatum  ofFenderis.led  cxpaidc.num  in  melius  mutaram 
(ibNam  morbus  cd  non  iudidura.  damnarcquod  non  itv 
(pexetis. 

SALVO  VBrQVE  ET  ILLABEFACTO 

ECCLESIAE  IVDICIO. 

Additaluntinfingulas  Apoftolorum  epidolas 

ArgumentapcrERA'SMVM  ROT. 


TITLE-PAQE  OF  NEW  TESTAMENT,  1519. 


1514]  England  i8i 

"  I  have  no  fear,  my  dear  Erasmus,  but  that  when  you 
hear  that  our  prince  Henry  octavus,  or  rather  Octavius, 
has  by  the  death  of  his  father  succeeded  to  the  kingdom, 
all  gloom  will  at  once  vanish  from  your  mind.  For  what 
may  you  not  promise  yourself  from  a  prince  whose  ex- 
traordinary— nay,  almost  divine  character  is  well  known 
to  you;  to  whom  especially  you  are  not  merely  known, 
but  known  familiarly — why,  you  have  even  received  let- 
ters from  him  written  with  his  own  hand — a  thing  which 
has  happened  to  few  men.  If  you  knew  how  like  a  hero 
he  now  appears,  how  wisely  he  conducts  himself,  how  he 
loves  truth  and  justice,  what  favour  he  is  showing  to  men 
of  letters,  I  dare  swear,  though  you  have  no  wings,  you 
would  fly  over  to  us  in  all  haste  to  greet  this  new  and 
auspicious  star. 

"  Oh!  my  dear  Erasmus,  if  you  could  only  see  how 
wild  with  joy  everyone  here  is,  how  they  are  congratu- 
lating themselves  on  having  such  a  prince,  how  they  pray 
for  nothing  more  earnestly  than  for  his  life,  you  could 
not  help  weeping  for  joy.  The  very  air  is  full  of  laugh- 
ter, the  earth  dances,  everything  flows  with  milk  and 
honey  and  nectar.  Avarice  slinks  away  far  from  the 
people;  generosity  scatters  wealth  with  lavish  hand. 
Our  king  is  eager,  not  for  gold,  not  for  gems  and  pre- 
cious stones,  but  for  virtue,  glory,  and  immortality.  I 
will  give  you  a  taste: — the  other  day  he  was  wishing  him- 
self more  learned — '  nay,'  I  said,  *  that  is  not  what  we 
wish  for  you,  but  rather  that  you  may  welcome  and  en- 
courage learned  men.*  '  Why  should  I  not,'  he  replied, 
'  for  indeed  without  them  I  can  scarce  exist.'  What 
nobler  word  could  have  fallen  from  a  prince's  lips  ?  But 
I  am  a  rash  fellow  to  venture  out  upon  the  ocean  in  my 
slender  bark ;  let  this  task  be  reserved  for  you.  I  wanted 
to  preface  my  letter  with  these  few  words  in  praise  of  our 


1 82  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

divine  prince,  so  that,  if  any  gloom  remains  in  your 
heart,  I  might  straightway  banish  it,  or,  if  it  is  all  gone, 
that  I  might  not  only  confirm  the  hope  you  have  formed, 
but  more  and  more  increase  it.     .     .     . 

"  I  could  console  you  and  bid  you  be  of  good  cheer, 
did  I  not  believe  that  whatever  you  could  dare  to  wish 
for,  you  have  already  on  your  own  account  very  reason- 
able hopes  of  attaining.  You  shall  think  that  the  last 
day  of  your  troubles  has  dawned.  You  shall  come  to  a 
prince  who  will  say: — '  here  are  riches;  be  the  chief  of 
my  poets.'  " 

The  letter  then  briefly  summarises  the  contents  of 
the  lost  epistle  and  continues: 

**  I  will  now  go  back  to  your  work,  which  all  are  prais- 
ing to  the  skies.  Above  all  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury 
was  so  pleased  and  delighted,  that  I  could  not  get  it  out 
of  his  hands.  '  But,'  you  will  say,  '  so  far  nothing  but 
praises.'  The  same  archbishop  promises  you  a  living  if 
you  will  return  and  has  given  me  five  pounds  cash  to  be 
sent  to  you  for  the  journey.  I  add  as  much  myself,  not 
really  as  a  gift,  for  this  is  not  the  kind  of  thing  to  be 
called  a  gift,  but  only  that  you  may  hasten  to  us  and  no 
longer  torment  us  with  longing  for  you. 

"  Finally,  there  remains  only  this  bit  of  advice  to  give: 
don't  imagine  that  anything  can  be  more  grateful  to  me 
than  your  letters  or  that  I  could  be  offended  by  anything 
from  you.  I  am  exceedingly  troubled  that  your  health 
has  become  impaired  in  Italy;  you  know  I  was  never 
greatly  in  favour  of  your  going  there.  But  when  I  see 
how  much  work  you  accomplished  and  how  much  fame 
you  have  won  there,  by  Jove!  I  am  sorry  I  did  not  go 
with  you.     For  I  think  that  such  learning  and  such  fame 


1 514]  England  183 

would  be  well  bought  with  hunger,  poverty,  and  pain, 
nay,  even  with  death.  Please  find  enclosed  a  draft  for 
the  money;  look  out  for  your  health  and  come  to  us  as 
soon  as  you  can." 

Certainly  a  more  than  friendly  letter.  True,  Mount- 
joy  makes  no  definite  promises  on  his  own  account, 
but  his  glowing  picture  of  the  great  times  coming 
for  English  letters  was  enough  to  fire  the  ambition 
of  a  less  credulous  scholar  than  Erasmus.  The 
definite  promise  from  Archbishop  Warham  of  a 
church-living  and  the  earnest  of  a  gift  for  travelling 
expenses  were  attractions  not  to  be  resisted. 

Erasmus  arrived  in  England  in  1509,  and  remained 
there  until  the  early  part  of  15 14.  Of  these  nearly 
five  years  we  have  but  little  satisfactory  account. 
There  is  no  indication  that  it  was  anyone's  affair 
to  look  after  him  in  any  way.  We  know  that  he 
lived  chiefly  at  Cambridge  and  London.  He  may 
even  have  made  a  short  trip  to  the  Continent  in  the 
interval.  He  was  evidently  much  concerned  with 
money  matters,  making  continual  complaints  of 
poverty ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  lived  in  apparent 
comfort,  not  to  say  a  kind  of  luxury.  What  he 
meant  by  poverty  was  the  absence  of  a  sufficient 
estate  from  which  to  live  as  he  would  have  liked  to 
live.  He  certainly  had  money  more  or  less  regularly 
from  Mountjoy,  and  at  some  time  during  his  Eng- 
lish residence  he  was  also  handsomely  furnished  with 
a  regular  income  by  Warham.  The  peculiar  thing 
about  these  English  pensions  was  that  they  were 
generally  paid  when  due,  and  that  was  more  than 


1 84  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

could  be  said  of  any  of  the  other  benefits  promised 
to  Erasmus,  either  before  or  afterward. 

The  arrangement  with  Warham  was  one  quite  in 
accord  with  the  practice  of  the  day  in  such  cases, 
but  not  altogether  in  harmony  with  some  of  Eras- 
mus' lofty  pretensions  about  pecuniary  burdens. 
When  Warham  offered  Erasmus  the  "  living  "  of 
Aldington  in  Kent,  it  was  rather  a  severe  test  of  the 
famous  critic's  sincerity  in  his  utterances  on  church 
morality.  A  more  flagrant  case  of  abuse  of  church 
funds,  so  far  as  the  principle  was  concerned,  could 
hardly  be  imagined.  Here  was  a  needy  foreigner, 
who  had,  to  be  sure,  the  ordination  of  a  priest,  but 
who  from  the  moment  of  his  ordaining  had  never 
done  a  single  clerical  act,  to  be  set  over  a  congrega- 
tion of  English  souls,  only  that  their  contributions 
might  go  to  support  him  in  a  life  of  scholarly  pro- 
duction. To  be  sure  there  were  excuses  enough  in 
the  habits  of  the  day,  but  it  was  precisely  as  a  critic 
of  such  corrupt  practices  that  Erasmus  was  now  be- 
fore the  world.  Another  palliation  may  be  found 
in  the  nature  of  the  work  which  the  scholar  hoped 
to  do  in  the  leisure  thus  acquired.  He  was  laying 
great  and  far-reaching  plans  for  such  an  advance- 
ment of  theological  study  as  should  bring  in  a  really 
new  era  of  Christian  faith  and  practice.  Still  all 
such  reasoning  could  not  obscure  the  real  fact  that 
to  accept  such  a  parish  living  meant  to  take  money 
for  which  no  proper  equivalent  was  given  to  those 
who  furnished  it.  This  was  not  Warham's  money, 
but  only  a  trust  in  his  hands  for  the  benefit  of  the 
souls  of  Aldington. 


WILLIAM  WARHAM,  ARCHBISHOP  OF  CANTERBURY. 

FROM    A    PAINTING    BY    HOLBEIN,    IN    THE    LOUVRE   OALLERV, 


I5I4]  England  185 

Erasmus*  own  account '  of  the  transaction  repre- 
sents himself  as  very  reluctant  to  take  the  benefice, 
and  Warham  as  insisting  upon  it  so  urgently  that 
he  finally  could  no  longer  resist.  Fortunately  we 
have  the  original  documents '  in  Warham's  own 
words,  and  there  is  no  hint  of  any  reluctance  on 
Erasmus'  part.  The  fact  was,  at  all  events,  that  he 
took  the  living,  did  nothing  by  way  of  service,  and 
in  a  few  months  resigned  it  in  exchange  for  an  annual 
pension  of  twenty  pounds.  Warham's  account  of 
the  matter  goes  far  beyond  the  ordinary  limits  of  a 
deed  of  record,  and  is  in  fact  nothing  less  than 
a  frank  apology  for  a  practice  which  he  did  not 
himself  approve.  It  was  far  too  common  for  a  parish 
priest  to  resign  a  living  with  duties  in  exchange  for 
a  substantial  life-pension  without  duties,  and  War- 
ham  declares  his  determination  not  to  permit  this 
sort  of  thing  in  the  diocese  of  Canterbury.  He 
makes,  however,  an  exception  in  Erasmus'  case,  he 
says,  for  several  reasons :    First,  he  is 

"  moved  by  the  countless  good  qualities  of  Erasmus,  a 
man  of  consummate  ability  in  Latin  and  Greek  literature, 
who  adorns  our  age  with  his  learning  and  talent  like  a 
star,  to  draw  back  a  little  from  our  general  principle. 
And  no  one  ought  to  think  it  strange  if  in  the  case  of  so 
rare  a  man  and  one  placed  beyond  every  hazard  of 
genius,  we  thought  we  ought  to  change  somewhat  of  our 
previous  custom.  For  when  we  had  conferred  on  him  a 
benefice  with  the  cure  of  souls,  namely,  the  church  of 
Aldington,  although  he  was  extremely  learned  in  theology, 

'  Knight's  Life  of  Erasmus,  p.  155,  note  a. 

*  Knight,  Appendix,  xl.,  and  Vischer's  Erasmiana,  1876,  pp.  8-15. 


1 86  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

as  in  every  other  branch  of  learning,  still  as  he  could  not 
preach  the  word  of  God  to  his  parishioners  in  English  or 
hold  any  communication  with  them  in  their  own  tongue, 
of  which  he  is  entirely  ignorant;  for  this  reason  desiring 
to  give  up  the  before-mentioned  church,  he  begged  us  to 
provide  for  him  an  annual  petision  in  the  same.  We 
thought  that  to  agree  to  his  suggestion  would  be  profitable 
to  the  souls,  and  at  the  same  time  he  would  be  able  the 
more  freely  to  pursue  those  literary  studies  to  which  he 
is  cotnpletely  devoted.  We  were  also  not  a  little  moved  by 
his  unusual  affection  toward  the  English,  for  he  had 
given  up  Italy,  France,  and  Germany,  where  he  might 
have  lived  prosperously  enough,  and  preferred  to  betake 
himself  hither,  that  he  might  pass  the  remnant  of  his  life 
here  among  friends,  and  that  these  in  turn  might  enjoy 
the  companionship  of  so  learned  a  man." 

Here  is  the  plain  evidence  of  a  serious  document 
of  record  that  Erasmus  not  only  took  his  pension 
gladly,  but  actually  begged  for  it,  and  it  is  quite  in 
harmony  with  this  that  we  afterwards  find  him  quar- 
relling with  his  successor  about  certain  tithes  which 
the  latter  thought  were  to  be  deducted  from  the 
twenty  pounds. 

This  document  bears  date  the  last  day  of  July, 
1 5 12,  so  that  Erasmus  was  unquestionably  well  pro- 
vided for  from  that  day  on.  The  date  of  his  first 
induction  into  the  parish  was  March  22,  151 1,  and 
as  he  thus  had  a  right  to  the  whole  income  of  the 
place  during  a  year  and  a  third,  there  is  no  reason 
why  he  should  not  have  had  a  tidy  sum  to  his 
credit. 

The  letters  of  Erasmus  during  this  English  visit 


I5I4]  England  187 

are  few  and  give  but  little  insight  into  his  way  of 
life.  The  most  interesting  of  them  are  those  written 
from  Cambridge  to  another  foreigner,  an  Italian, 
Andreas  Ammonius,  who,  like  himself,  had  wan- 
dered to  England  to  seek  his  fortune,  and  had  become 
a  Latin  secretary  to  the  young  King  Henry  VIII. 
In  addition  to  this  function  he  appears  later  as 
holding  some  papal  commission  in  England.  With 
this  cheerful  and  practical  specimen  of  the  gay 
Italian  Humanism  of  the  day  our  scholar  corre- 
sponded with  great  freedom.  Ammonius  was  not 
troubled  by  Erasmus'  dread  of  place-holding,  and 
was  frankly  enjoying  the  sunshine  of  the  court.  He 
seems  to  have  advised  Erasmus  to  try  his  fortune 
also  in  London.      Erasmus  replies: 

"  As  for  your  serious  advice  that  I  should  pay  my 
court  to  Fortune,  I  acknowledge  the  true  and  friendly 
counsel,  and  I  will  try  it,  though  my  mind  rebels  against 
it  most  strongly  and  predicts  no  good  and  happy  out- 
come. If  I  had  exposed  myself  to  the  risks  of  Fortune  I 
should  have  put  myself  under  the  laws  of  a  game,  and,  if 
I  had  got  beaten,  should  be  making  the  best  of  it,  know- 
ing, as  I  do,  that  this  is  just  Fortune's  trick,  to  set  up 
some  and  restore  others  as  she  pleases.  But  I  thought  I 
had  provided  myself  against  having  anything  to  do  with 
this  wanton  mistress,  since  Mountjoy  had  brought  me 
into  harbour  and  into  a  settled  thing.  Nor  does  the 
kindness  of  Fortune  towards  others,  no  matter  how  un- 
worthy, trouble  me  one  particle,  so  help  me  God!  The 
success  of  you  and  the  like  of  you  brings  me  a  real  and 
uncommon  pleasure.  Even  if  I  were  compelled  to  go 
into  a  calculation  of  my  merits,  my  present  fortune  would 


1 88  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

seem  beyond  my  deserts,  for  I  measure  myself  by  my 
own  foot  and  not  by  your  praises." 

Little  inclined  as  Erasmus  was  to  try  his  hand  at 
court,  it  was  not  for  lack  of  theories  as  to  how  one 
might  best  get  on  there.  He  gives  Ammonius  the 
benefit  of  them  in  this  classic  passage  * : 

"  Now  then  I,  the  sow,  will  proceed  to  teach  Minerva; 
but,  since  you  forbid  it,  I  will  not  philosophise  too  much. 
The  first  thing  is,  give  your  forehead  such  a  rubbing 
that  you  will  never  blush  at  anything.  Mix  yourself  in 
everybody's  business.  Elbow  aside  everyone  you  can. 
Love  no  one  and  hate  no  one  with  your  whole  heart,  but 
measure  all  things  by  your  own  advantage.  Let  the 
whole  ordering  of  your  life  be  turned  to  this  one  aim. 
Give  nothing  without  hope  of  a  return;  agree  to  all 
things  with  all  men.  '  But,'  you  say,  '  these  are  common- 
places.' Well,  then,  since  you  insist  upon  it,  I  will  give 
you  a  special  piece  of  advice,  but  in  your  ear,  mind  you. 
You  know  the  jealousy  of  these  Britons;  make  use  of  it 
for  your  own  good.  Ride  two  horses  at  once.  Hire 
various  suitors  to  keep  at  you.  Threaten  to  leave  and 
begin  to  pack  up.  Show  letters  calling  you  away  with 
great  promises ;  take  yourself  off  somewhere,  that  absence 
may  sharpen  their  desire  for  you." 

This  is  a  very  exact  description  of  Erasmus'  own 
tactics  in  the  Battus  days,  and  continues  to  fit  his 
action  very  well  whenever  he  was  considering  a 
change  of  residence. 

In  1 5 1 1  he  writes  to  Ammonius : 

If  you  have  any  trustworthy  news,  I  wish  you  would 
i.'    122-B. 


•iii.',  122-B 


I5I4]  England  189 

let  me  know  it.  I  want  especially  to  hear  whether  Julius 
is  really  playing  Julius,  and  whether  Christ  keeps  up  his 
ancient  custom  of  specially  trying  with  the  storms  of  ad- 
verse fortune  those  whom  he  desires  to  make  specially 
his  own," 

Writing  from  Queen's  College  in  August,  151 1, 
he  says : 

"  I  am  sending  you  some  letters  which  I  have  writ- 
ten to  Bombasius  [his  learned  friend,  we  remember,  in 
Bologna].  As  to  myself  I  have  nothing  new  to  write, 
save  that  the  journey  was  most  uncomfortable  and  that 
my  health  is  so  far  very  dubious  on  account  of  that  over- 
exertion. I  expect  to  make  a  somewhat  longer  stay  in 
this  college,  but  as  yet  I  have  not  given  much  of  myself 
to  my  hearers,  desiring  to  look  out  for  my  health.  The 
beer  in  this  place  I  don't  like  at  all  and  the  wine  is  far 
from  satisfactory.  If  you  can  order  me  a  flagon  of  Greek 
wine,  the  very  best  you  can  find,  you  will  make  your 
Erasmus  happy,  but  let  it  be  very  far  from  sweet.  Don't 
worry  about  the  money;  I  will  pay  in  advance  if  you 
like." 

Ammonius  sent  the  wine,  not  so  much  as  Erasmus 
had  expected,  but  refused  with  some  heat  to  hear  of 
pay,  and  we  have  Erasmus'  reply : 

"  You  have  given  me  a  double  pleasure,  most  amiable 
Ammonius,  by  sending  with  your  merry  wine  letters  far 
merrier  still,  and  smacking  exactly  of  your  genius  and 
disposition,  and  these  in  my  judgment  are  the  sweetest 
that  ever  were.  As  to  my  mention  of  pay  which  makes 
you  so  angry,  indeed  I  was  not  ignorant  of  your  charac- 
ter, which  is  worthy  of  a  kingly  fortune.     But  I  supposed 


190  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

you  were  going  to  send  me  a  great  flagon,  enough  to  last 
me  several  months — yet  even  this  is  too  large  for  a 
modest  man  to  receive  without  pay.  ...  I  marvel 
that  you  stick  to  your  nest  so  perpetually  and  never  take 
a  flight  away.  If  you  should  ever  be  pleased  to  visit  this 
Academy  you  would  be  welcomed  by  many,  by  me  first 
of  all.  You  bid  me  come  back  to  you  if  I  get  too  tired 
here,  but  I  can't  see  any  attraction  for  me  in  London 
except  the  companionship  of  two  or  three  friends." 

Ammonius  accompanied  the  English  army  in  the 
Flemish  campaign  of  15 13,  and  Erasmus  writes  to 
him  in  camp,  thanking  him  for  the  vivid  description 
of  army  life  which  he  has  sent  home,  and  introducing 
him  to  various  friends  of  his  own  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries. 

"  O  happy  man,"  he  says,  "  if  God  permits  you  to  re- 
turn safely  to  us!  What  merry  tales  your  experience  of 
these  horrors  will  supply  you  with  for  the  rest  of  your 
life!  But,  my  dear  Ammonius,  I  beseech  you  again  and 
again,  as  I  have  cautioned  you  in  my  recent  letters,  by 
the  Muses  and  Graces,  look  out  that  you  do  your  fighting 
from  a  safe  distance.  Be  as  furious  as  you  like — with 
your  pen, — and  slay  with  it  ten  times  ten  thousand  men 
a  day."  As  for  himself,  he  says  he  is  hanging  on  at 
Cambridge,  "  looking  about  me  every  day  for  a  con- 
venient chance  to  fly  away.  Only  no  opportunity  offers. 
I  am  kept  also  by  the  thirty  nobles  which  I  am  expecting 
at  Michaelmas.  I  am  so  on  fire  with  zeal  to  re-edit  Je- 
rome and  to  illustrate  it  with  commentaries,  that  I  seem 
to  be  inspired  by  some  god.  I  have  now  nearly  com- 
pleted the  revision  and  have  collated  many  ancient  texts, 
and  all  this  at  great  expense  to  myself." 


I5I4]  England  191 

At  Cambridge,  as  elsewhere,  Erasmus  seems  al- 
ways to  have  been  on  the  eve  of  flight,  working 
away  at  what  interested  him,  but  neglecting  every- 
thing else  as  far  as  possible. 

"  I  wrote  to  you  once  and  again  in  camp,"  he  says  to 
Ammonius,  "  but  meanwhile  was  in  a  no  less  serious  war- 
fare here  with  my  emendations  of  Seneca  and  Jerome  than 
you  with  the  Frenchmen.  Although  I  was  not  in  camp, 
Durham  has  given  me  ten  crowns  from  the  French  plun- 
der;— but  I  '11  tell  you  all  about  this  when  I  see  you,  and 
meanwhile  will  be  on  the  lookout  for  your  military  let- 
ters.— Good-bye,  best  of  friends.  I  don't  need  to  ask  of 
you  what  you  are  always  doing  of  your  own  accord,  and 
yet  I  do  ask  that  if  any  chance  offers  you  will  help  me 
along  with  a  word  of  recommendation.  For  these  few 
months  I  have  cast  anchor  securely.  If  things  go  well, 
I  will  fancy  that  here  is  my  native  land,  which  I  have 
preferred  to  Rome  and  where  old  age  is  coming  upon  me; 
if  not  I  will  break  away,  it  does  n't  much  matter  whither, 
and  will  at  all  events  die  somewhere  else.  I  will  call 
upon  all  the  gods  to  bear  witness  to  the  confidence  by 
which  he  whom  you  know  has  ruined  me.  If  I  had 
promised  with  three  words  what  he  has  repeated  so  often 
and  in  such  sounding  phrases,  I  know  that  what  I  pro- 
mised I  would  have  performed.  May  I  be  damned  if  I 
would  n't  rather  die  than  let  a  man  who  was  dependent 
on  me  go  destitute.  I  congratulate  you,  dear  Ammonius, 
that  Fortune,  not  always  so  unjust  as  she  is  to  me,  is  now, 
as  I  hear,  smiling  upon  you.     Good-bye  again." 

' '  For  months  now, ' '  he  writes,  ' '  I  have  been  living  the 
life  of  a  snail,  shut  up  at  home  and  brooding  in  silence 
over  my  studies.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  solitude  here; 
many  are  away  through  fear  of  the  plague, — though  even 


192  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

when  everyone  is  here  it  is  a  solitude.  The  expense  is 
intolerable  and  there  is  not  a  farthing  of  profit.  Think 
of  it!  I  swear  by  all  that 's  sacred  that  in  the  five  months 
since  I  came  here  I  have  spent  sixty  nobles  and  have 
only  received  one  from  some  of  my  hearers  and  that  with 
much  reluctance  on  my  part.  It  is  certain  that  during 
this  winter  I  shall  leave  no  stone  unturned  and,  as  they 
say,  shall  weigh  the  anchor  of  my  safety.  If  things  go 
well,  I  shall  make  myself  a  nest  somewhere;  if  not,  I 
shall  certainly  fly  away  from  here,  I  know  not  whither; 
if  nothing  else  I  will  at  least  die  elsewhere. ' ' 

Ammonias  reports  upon  his  progress  in  begging 
for  Erasmus,  and  Erasmus,  quite  in  the  tone  of  the 
old  correspondence  with  Battus,  thanks  him  and 
urges  him  to  further  effort. 

These  dolorous  letters  bear  date  151 1,  but  can- 
not all  belong  in  that  year,  and  month  and  day 
are  often  obviously  incorrect.  Dated  early  in  1512 
we  have  a  letter  to  the  abbot  of  St.  Bertin.  After 
explaining  why  he  had  not  reported  himself  earlier, 
Erasmus  goes  on  to  say  : 

"  If  you  care  to  hear  how  I  am  getting  on:  Erasmus 
is  almost  completely  transformed  into  an  Englishman, 
with  such  distinguished  consideration  am  I  treated  by 
very  many  others,  but  especially  by  my  incomparable 
{unicus)  Maecenas,  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury, — 
patron  not  of  me  alone,  but  of  all  learned  men,  among 
whom  I  hold  the  lowest  place,  if  indeed  I  hold  any  place 
at  all.  Eternal  God !  how  happy,  how  productive,  how 
ready  is  the  talent  of  that  man!  What  skill  in  unravel- 
hng  the  most  weighty  matters  of  business!  what  uncom- 
mon learning!  what  unheard-of  graciousness  towards  all! 


I5I4]  England  193 

what  geniality  in  company,  so  that, — a  truly  royal  quality, 
— he  sends  no  one  away  from  him  sad.  And  besides  all 
this:  what  great  and  ready  generosity!  Finally,  in  such 
a  conspicuous  position  of  fortune  and  rank,  how  abso- 
lutely free  from  haughtiness, — so  that  he  seems  to  be  the 
only  one  who  is  ignorant  of  his  own  greatness.  In  caring 
for  his  friends  no  one  is  more  faithful  or  more  constant. 
In  short  he  is  indeed  Primus,  not  in  rank  alone  but  in  all 
praiseworthy  things.  Since  I  have  this  man  for  a  friend, 
why  should  I  not  deem  myself  exceptionally  fortunate, 
even  if  there  were  nothing  more  ?  " 

It  is  idle  to  attempt  to  determine  which  of  these 
moods  represents  the  real  state  of  mind  of  Erasmus 
at  Cambridge.  Probably  he  was  at  his  old  tricks  of 
making  himself  valued  by  threatening  to  leave  an 
unbearable  situation,  and  at  the  same  time  making 
that  situation  appear  as  delightful  as  possible  to  any- 
one outside  who  might  conceivably  raise  a  bid  for 
him  in  another  quarter.  He  tells  Ammonius  again 
how  charming  Italy  was  to  him  and  what  a  prospect 
he  had  given  up  there  to  come  to  England.  He 
thinks  he  will  come  to  London,  and  begs  Ammonius 
to  find  him  a  warm  lodging  not  too  far  from  St. 
Paul's.  He  cannot  go  to  Mountjoy's  so  long  as 
"  that  Cerberus  "  is  there.  Evidently  he  did  not 
have  the  run  of  many  hospitable  homes  in  London. 

As  regards  Erasmus'  official  position  at  Cambridge 
there  is  some  room  for  doubt.  He  appears  in  the 
lists  of  university  officers  as  the  "  Lady  Margaret's 
Professor  of  Divinity, ' '  but  precisely  what  this  means 
is  not  clear.  The  Lady  Margaret  was  the  Countess 
of  Richmond,  mother  of  King  Henry  VII.,  never 


194  Desiderius  Erasmus  [150^ 

queen  herself,  but  claiming  the  doubtful  honour  of 
blood-relationship  to  sixty  or  seventy  persons  of 
royal  lineage.  This  benevolent  lady,  influenced 
undoubtedly  by  the  advice  of  John  Fisher,  after- 
ward Bishop  of  Rochester,  had  founded  in  1503  a 
readership  in  divinity  at  each  of  the  great  English 
universities.  The  endowment  had  been  intrusted 
to  the  abbey  of  Westminster  with  instructions  to 
pay  over  the  salary  to  the  holder.  The  election  to 
the  oflfice  was  to  be  biennial,  and  besides  the  chan- 
cellor all  doctors,  bachelors,  and  inceptors  in  divinity 
were  to  have  the  right  to  vote.  The  place  was  to 
be  no  sinecure.  The  reader  must  read  libere,  sollen- 
niter,  and  aperte.  He  was  to  have  no  fees  beyond  his 
salary,  and  must  read  such  works  in  divinity  as  the 
chancellor  with  the  "  college  of  doctors"  should 
judge  necessary.  He  must  "  read  every  accustomed 
day  in  each  term,  and  in  the  long  vacation  up  to  the 
eighth  of  September,  but  might  cease  in  Lent,  if  the 
chancellor  should  think  fit,  in  order  that  during  that 
season  he  and  his  auditors  might  be  occupied  in 
preaching. ' '  Evidently  it  was  contemplated  that  the 
reader  of  the  Lady  Margaret  should  devote  himself 
wholly  to  this  work.  The  salary  was  the  very  re- 
spectable sum  of  sixty-five  dollars  a  year,  enough  to 
provide  a  modest  living  for  a  man  of  quiet  habits. 
We  are  almost  wholly  without  information  as  to 
Erasmus'  performance  of  the  duties  of  this  office. 
Everything  points  toward  the  belief  that  in  the 
sense  described  by  the  act  of  foundation  he  never 
filled  it  at  all.  The  only  references  he  makes  are  to 
his  attempts  to  teach  Greek,  certainly  not  one  of 


JOHN  FISHER,  BISHOP  OF  ROCHESTER. 

FROM  THE  DRAWING  SY  HOLBEIN,  IN  WINDSOR  CASTLE. 


I5I4]  England  195 

the  functions  of  the  Lady  Margaret  Professor.  It 
has  often  been  assumed  '  that  Erasmus*  complaints 
about  his  Cambridge  life  were  caused  by  a  sense  of 
failure  in  his  work  as  a  teacher.  We  are  prepared 
to  believe  from  all  his  previous  experience  that  he 
never  cared  to  succeed  as  a  teacher,  and,  further,  we 
may  be  tolerably  sure  that,  for  this  quite  suflficient 
reason,  he  was  not  a  very  good  teacher.  He  held 
his  readership,  we  may  believe,  for  two  terms  of  two 
years  each — if  indeed  he  held  it  at  all — and  mean- 
while tried  to  give  Greek  lessons,  but  could  get 
neither  pupils  nor  pay.  Mr.  Mullinger  says,  "  Dis- 
appointed in  his  class-room,  he  took  refuge  in  his 
study,"  as  if  his  literary  work  were  a  kind  of  last 
resort  on  the  failure  of  his  true  profession. 

The  truth  would  seem  to  be  just  the  opposite  of 
this.  What  really  commanded  the  allegiance  of  all 
that  was  best  and  most  effective  in  Erasmus'  make- 
up was  his  study  and  writing.  His  proper  medium 
of  self-expression  was  his  pen,  and  until  he  took 
his  pen  in  hand  he  was  not  his  best  self.  If  he  was 
capable  of  any  sincere  utterance  he  was  sincere  when 
he  said  to  Ammonius  that  he  felt  himself  moved  by 
an  almost  divine  inspiration  when  he  got  going  on 
his  Jerome.  A  few  more  glimpses  at  the  working 
of  his  mind  at  Cambridge  and  we  will  pass  on  to  see 
what  he  accomplished  there  in  the  way  of  contribu- 
tions to  learning. 

Besides  Ammonius  his  other  most  important  cor- 
respondent during  this  time  was  his  old  friend,  John 

•  For  example,  by  Mr.  Mullinger  in  his  History  of  the  University 
of  Cambridge,  p.  50  8  ff. 


196  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

Colet,  now  definitely  settled  in  London  as  dean  of 
St.  Paul's  and  greatly  absorbed  in  the  work  which 
was  to'be  his  most  lasting  monument,  the  new  school 
for  boys.  The  correspondence  seems  to  have  begun 
by  a  begging  letter  from  Erasmus  in  which  he  had 
gone  beyond  the  limits  of  good  taste,  and  to  which 
Colet  had  replied  with  some  heat.  It  is  not  beyond 
our  belief  that  Erasmus  may  have  given  his  letter  a 
jocose  form,  and  that  Colet,  Englishman  as  he  was, 
had  not  seen  the  joke.  At  all  events,  Erasmus 
writes : 

"  You  answer  seriously  a  letter  written  in  jest.  Per- 
haps I  ought  not  to  have  joked  with  so  great  a  patron, 
yet  it  pleased  my  fancy  just  then  to  try  a  little  '  Attic 
salt '  on  such  a  very  dear  friend,  being  mindful  rather  of 
your  gentle  character  than  of  your  high  position.  It  will 
be  the  part  of  your  friendliness  to  make  allowances  for 
my  awkwardness.  You  write  that  I  am  in  your  debt 
whether  I  like  it  or  not.  Indeed,  my  dear  Colet,  it  is 
hard,  as  Seneca  says,  to  be  an  unwilling  debtor,  but  I 
know  no  man  to  whom  I  would  more  willingly  be  in  debt 
than  to  you.  You  have  always  had  such  kind  feelings 
towards  me  that,  even  if  no  good  offices  had  been  added, 
still  Ishould  have  been  greatly  your  debtor;  but  now  you 
have  added  so  many  services  and  kindnesses  that  if  I  did 
not  acknowledge  them  I  should  be  the  most  ungrateful 
of  men.  As  to  your  embarrassments  I  both  believe  in 
them  and  grieve  for  them,  but  my  own  difficulties  were 
so  much  more  pressing  that  I  was  compelled  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  yours.  How  unwilling  I  was  to  do  this  you 
may  gather  from  the  fact  that  I  was  so  long  in  asking  what 
you  had  long  since  promised.     I  don't  wonder  that  you, 


I5I4]  England  197 

occupied  as  you  are  with  so  many  affairs,  should  have 
forgotten  your  promise ;  but  when  we  were  in  your  garden 
talking  about  the  Copia^^  I  proposed  to  dedicate  some 
juvenile  work  to  our  youthful  prince,  and  you  asked  me 
to  dedicate  the  new  work  to  your  new  school.  I  an- 
swered with  a  smile  that  your  new  school  was  a  trifle 
poverty-stricken  and  what  I  needed  was  someone  who 
would  pay  cash  down.  Then  you  smiled.  Then,  when 
I  had  told  over  many  reasons  for  expense,  you  said  w^ith 
some  hesitation  that  you  could  not  give  me  as  much  as  I 
needed,  but  would  gladly  give  fifteen  angels.  When  you 
repeated  this  with  an  eager  face,  I  asked  if  you  thought 
that  was  enough.  You  answered  eagerly  again  that  you 
would  willingly  pay  that.  Then  I  said  I  would  gladly 
take  it.  This  reminder  will  perhaps  bring  the  matter  to 
your  memory.  I  might  pile  up  more  arguments,  if  you 
had  not  faith  in  me  of  your  own  accord.  There  are  some, 
and  friends, too, — for  I  have  no  dealings  with  enemies  and 
don't  value  their  words  one  hair, — who  say  that  you  are  a 
little  hard,  and  in  giving  money  a  trifle  exacting.  They 
say  that  this  does  not  come  from  meanness — so  I  under- 
stand them  —  but  because  from  the  very  gentleness  of 
your  nature  you  cannot  resist  those  who  press  and  urge 
themselves  upon  you,  and  are  the  less  generous  with  your 
modest  friends  because  you  cannot  satisfy  both. 
If  it  would  "not  burden  you  to  send  me  the  remnant  of 
what  you  promised,  as  my  affairs  are  at  present,  I  will 
take  it,  not  as  a  debt,  but  as  a  gift  to  be  repaid  when  I 
can  do  so.  I  was  sorry  to  hear,  at  the  end  of  your  letter, 
that  you  were  so  unusually  burdened  by  business  cares. 
I  could  wish  you  were  as  far  as  possible  removed  from 
the  cares  of  this  world,   not  for  fear  that  the  world's 


•  De  duplici  copia  verborum  et  rerum. 


198  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

allurements  can  lay  hold  upon  you,  but  because  I  should 
like  to  see  such  genius,  eloquence,  and  learning  as  yours 
wholly  devoted  to  Christ.  If  you  cannot  escape,  look 
out  that  you  do  not  sink  deeper  and  deeper.  It  might 
be  better  to  fail  than  to  buy  success  at  so  great  a  price, 
for  the  highest  good  is  peace  of  mind.  These  are  the 
thorns  that  accompany  riches.  ...  I  have  finished 
the  collation  of  the  New  Testament  and  am  going  on  to 
Jerome.     When  I  have  finished  him  I  will  fly  to  you." 

Singular  that  in  all  Erasmus'  complaints  of  his 
Cambridge  life  he  makes  no  reference  to  any  failure 
on  the  part  of  the  authorities  to  pay  him  his  due 
stipend.  It  seems  clear  either  that  he  held  no  posi- 
tion which  carried  a  salary  with  it,  or  that  his  beg- 
ging was  for  "  extras  "  beyond  the  modest  needs  of 
a  celibate  scholar.  Some  light  is  thrown  upon  this 
point  in  a  letter  to  Colet,  dated  October,  15 13,  but 
quite  as  likely  belonging,  as  Mr.  Drummond  sug- 
gests, in  15 1 1. 

"  I  am  now  wholly  absorbed  in  the  Copia^  so  that  it 
seems  like  a  regular  enigma  to  be  in  the  midst  of  plenty 
\copia\  and  yet  in  the  depths  of  want.  And  would  that 
I  might  bring  both  to  a  conclusion  at  once;  for  I  will 
quickly  make  an  end  of  my  Copia  if  only  the- Muses  will 
favour  my  studies  more  than  Fortune  has  up  to  the  present 
time  favoured  my  estate. 

"  In  your  offer  of  money  I  recognise  your  ancient  good 
feeling  toward  me  and  I  thank  you  with  all  my  heart. 
But  there  is  one  phrase,  though  you  use  it  in  jest,  that 
stings  me  to  the  soul: — '  if  you  would  beg  humbly.'  Per- 
haps you  mean,  and  very  properly,  that  to  bear  my  lot 
with  such  impatience  comes  wholly  from  human  pride. 


I5I4]  England  199 

for,  indeed,  a  gentle  and  Christian  spirit  makes  the  best 
of  everything.  Still  more,  however,  I  marvel  how  you 
put  together  humility  and  shamelessness :  for  you  say, '  if 
you  would  beg  humbly  and  make  your  demand  shame- 
lessly.' If,  according  to  common  usage,  you  mean  by 
humility  the  opposite  of  arrogance,  how  are  impudence 
and  modesty  to  be  put  together  ?  But  if  by  '  humbly  ' 
you  mean  '  servilely'  and  'abjectly  '  you  differ  very  much 
from  Seneca,  my  dear  Colet,  who  thinks  that  nothing 
comes  higher  than  what  is  bought  with  prayers,  and  that 
he  does  a  far  from  friendly  service  who  demands  of  his 
friend  that  lowly  word,  '  I  beg  you. '  Socrates  once  said, 
conversing  with  some  friends: — '  I  should  have  bought 
me  a  cloak  to-day  if  I  had  had  the  money,'  and  Sen- 
eca says :  — '  he  gave  too  late  who  gave  after  those 
words.'     . 

"  But  now,  I  pray  you,  what  could  be  more  shameless 
than  I,  who  have  been  a  public  beggar  all  this  time  in 
England  ?  From  the  archbishop  I  have  had  so  much 
that  it  would  be  more  than  infamous  to  take  any  more, 
even  if  he  should  offer  it.  From  N.  I  have  begged 
boldly  enough,  but  as  I  asked  without  shame  so  has  he 
without  shame  repulsed  me.  Why  now  I  seem  too 
shameless  even  to  my  dear  Linacre,  who,  when  he  saw  me 
going  away  from  London  with  barely  six  angels  in  my 
pocket,  and  knew  how  feeble  my  health  was,  and  that 
winter  was  coming  on,  yet  eagerly  warned  me  to  spare 
the  archbishop,  to  spare  Mountjoy!  But  I  will  rather 
pull  myself  together  and  learn  to  bear  my  poverty 
bravely.  Oh!  that  was  a  friendly  counsel !  This  is  why 
I  especially  loathe  my  fate,  that  it  does  not  permit  me  to 
be  a  modest  man.  As  long  as  my  strength  would  carry 
me,  it  was  a  pleasure  to  hide  my  need — now  I  cannot  do 
that  unless  I  choose  to  neglect  my  life.     And  still  I  am 


200  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

not  yet  so  lost  to  shame  that  I  ask  all  things  of  everyone. 
From  others  I  ask  not,  lest  I  get  a  refusal,  but  from  you 
with  what  face,  pray,  can  I  ask  ?  Especially  since  you 
yourself  have  none  too  much  of  this  kind  of  goods. 
Yet,  if  it  is  boldness  you  like,  I  will  end  my  letter,  with 
the  very  boldest  clause  I  can.  I  cannot  so  put  aside  all 
shame  as  to  beg  of  you  with  no  excuse, — but  I  am  not  so 
proud  as  to  refuse  a  gift,  if  such  a  friend  as  you  should 
give  it  me  willingly,  especially  in  the  present  state  of  my 
affairs. ' ' 

These  selections  from  the  English  correspondence 
have  made  it  clear  that  Erasmus  in  England  was 
precisely  what  he  had  always  been,  a  keen-sighted 
observer  of  men  and  things,  a  hater  of  all  shams  but 
his  own,  a  sturdy  beggar,  a  jovial  companion  and 
correspondent  when  he  was  in  the  mood,  above  all 
an  independent  liver  and  thinker,  dreading  any 
routine  that  was  not  self-imposed,  but  capable  of 
steady  and  persistent  work  when  he  could  put  his 
time  on  congenial  tasks.  Of  these  labours,  to  which 
he  devoted  himself  in  England,  the  new  edition  of 
the  Greek  New  Testament,  or,  as  he  preferred  to 
call  it,  the  "  New  Instrument,"  held  the  first  place 
in  his  interest.  It  was  not  to  be  published  until 
1 5 16,  a  year  or  more  after  he  had  left  England,  and 
Erasmus  says  that  he  consulted  manuscripts  in  Bra- 
bant and  Basel  before  printing;  but  it  seems  toler- 
ably clear  that  a  considerable  part  of  the  preparatory 
work  was  done  at  Cambridge.      He  writes  to  Colet,' 

'  iii.,  107-E.  It  really  seems  a  little  too  much  to  place  this  begging 
letter,  as  Mr.  Drumraond  does,  in  15 12,  after  Erasmus  had  received 
his  pension  from  Warham. 


CARDINAL  XIMENES. 

FROM  A  PORTRAIT  BY  a   E.   WAG8TAFF,  IN  THE  FLORENCE  GALLERY. 


I5I4]  The  New  Testament  201 

as  early  as  1511:  "  I  have  finished  the  collation 
of  the  New  Testament,"  by  which  he  must  mean 
that  he  had  done  all  that  he  intended  to  do  at 
it  in  England.  In  speaking  of  the  work  at  Basel  he 
refers  to  the  great  haste  with  which  it  was  pushed, 
the  object  being,  probably,  on  Froben's  part,  to  get 
ahead  of  a  similar  undertaking  reported  to  be  under 
way  in  Spain.  This  latter  work,  to  be  known  as 
the  "Complutensian  Polyglot,"  was  going  on  under 
the  direction  of  Cardinal  Ximenes  at  Alcala  (Com- 
plutum).  It  was  to  include  the  whole  Bible,  and 
though  the  New  Testament  was  completed  in  15 14 
it  was  held  back  to  appear  with  the  rest  in  1520. 
When  Erasmus  says'  that  he  used  "very  many 
manuscripts  in  both  languages,  and  those  not  the 
readiest  to  hand,  but  the  most  ancient  and  most 
correct,"  he  is  speaking  after  the  standards  of  his 
day.  In  fact,  recent  scholarship  has  shown  that  he 
not  only  used  very  defective  manuscripts  of  no 
great  antiquity,  but  that  he  failed  to  make  adequate 
use  of  the  best  one  at  his  disposal." 

In  spite  of  the  fact,  then,  that  the  actual  work  of 
publication  was  done  at  Basel,  we  may  fairly  count 
this  great  work  as  one  of  the  fruits  of  the  English 
period.  Rightly  to  estimate  the  value  of  this  service 
to  the  cause  of  a  reasonable  Christianity,  we  must 
consider  for  a  moment  the  conditions  of  biblical 
scholarship  in  the  year  151 1.  That  the  ultimate 
appeal  in  matters  of  Christian  faith  lay  to  the  inspired 

'  vi.,  adinit. 

*  C.  R.  Gregory,  Prolegomena  to  Tischendorf's  New  Testament, 
L,  207-210. 


202  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

word  of  the  recognised  canon  of  Scripture,  no  one 
doubted  for  a  moment.  True,  the  governing  powers 
of  the  Church  had  insisted  that  alongside  this  source 
of  truth  there  were  two  others  of  equal  importance, 
the  tradition  of  the  Church  and  the  authority  of  the 
Roman  papacy ;  but  Church  and  papacy  had  always 
been  conceived  of  as  expressing  their  own  judgment 
through  their  interpretation  of  Scripture.  Nothing 
which  they  could  lay  down  could  ever  be  in  contra- 
diction to  the  true  teaching  of  the  canonical  writings. 
A  modern  mind  would  say,  therefore,  that  nothing 
could  have  seemed  more  important  to  these  inter- 
preting agents  than  to  know  precisely  what  the 
writers  whom  they  were  interpreting  had  said  and 
meant.  One  would  think  that  every  effort  would 
have  been  made  from  the  beginning  to  secure  and 
maintain  a  version  of  the  Scriptures  in  their  original 
form,  of  such  unquestionable  accuracy  that  all  devia- 
tions of  interpretation  could  be  anticipated  and 
checked. 

The  immense  prestige  which  the  Roman  govern- 
ment of  the  Church  might  thus  have  secured  to  itself 
was  deliberately  thrown  away.  Not  only  did  the 
chief  church  authority  do  nothing  itself  to  promote 
so  practical  and  so  profitable  an  undertaking,  but  it 
systematically  checked  the  efforts  of  individuals  and 
groups  of  scholars  to  contribute  toward  this  end. 
It  rested  all  its  own  interpretation  upon  a  translation 
into  Latin,  the  so-called  Vulgata,  which  had  been 
made  by  Jerome  in  the  years  just  before  and  just 
after  400,  and  repeatedly  declared  by  the  Church  to 
be   the   sole   authorised  version.     This  translation 


I5I4]  The  New  Testament  203 

was,  so  far  as  the  New  Testament  was  concerned,  a 
revision  of  earlier  Latin  versions  carefully  compared 
with  the  Greek  originals.  The  Old  Testament  was 
translated  from  the  original  Hebrew  with  close  refer- 
ence to  the  Septuagint  and  the  early  Greek  com- 
mentators. The  obvious  motive  of  the  Church  in 
clinging  to  this  defective  presentation  of  its  own 
supreme  authority  was  the  motive  of  uniformity. 
The  longer  the  correction  of  errors  could  be  post- 
poned, the  more  hope  that  no  effective  criticism  of 
institutions  resting,  perhaps,  on  errors  would  arise. 

Of  all  tendencies  in  human  society  none  was  so 
greatly  and  so  justly  dreaded  by  church  authority 
as  the  tendency  to  criticism.  And  by  criticism  we 
do  not  mean  a  carping  opposition.  We  mean  only 
what  the  word  properly  denotes:  inquiry  into  the 
exact  facts  about  any  given  subject.  In  proportion 
as  the  great  structure  of  ecclesiastical  authority  had 
grown  more  complicated,  this  nervous  dread  of  free 
inquiry  had  increased.  Nor  was  the  central  author- 
ity alone  responsible  for  this  state  of  mind.  Every 
part  of  the  church  organisation  had  done  its  share  to 
fix  this  notion  of  an  unchanging  uniformity  upon  the 
Christian  world.  The  whole  philosophy  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  which  prided  itself,  above  all  else,  upon  being 
a  Christian  philosophy,  had  exhausted  itself  in  giving 
a  pseudo-scientific  form  to  the  most  unscientific  view 
of  truth  the  world  had  ever  seen. 

The  great  service  of  Erasmus  was,  therefore,  that 
he  proposed  to  find  out  as  nearly  as  he  could  what  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament  had  actually  said.  Of 
course  his  apparatus  for  this  inquiry  was  still,  from 


204  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

the  point  of  view  of  modern  science,  very  defective. 
He  had  no  earlier  scientific  commentators  to  consult, 
with  the  single  exception  of  Laurentius  Valla,  the 
Italian  humanist,  who  a  few  years  before  had  pub- 
lished annotations  to  the  Greek  text.  His  criteria 
of  judgment  had  to  be  evolved  from  his  own  sense 
of  accuracy  as  he  went  along.  All  that  vast  assist- 
ance to  intelligent  editing  which  in  recent  times  has 
come  from  the  cultivation  of  the  historic  sense  was 
wanting  to  him.  Nothing  was  farther  from  Eras- 
mus' mind  than  any  radical  discussion  of  Christian 
doctrines.  He  continually  declares  his  fixed  deter- 
mination to  abide  by  the  faith  of  the  Church,  and 
whatever  adverse  criticism  he  had  to  make  was 
against  evil  practices  which  always  seemed  to  him 
only  perversions  of  the  essential  Christianity  of 
apostolic  times.  So  we  are  not  to  look  to  his  New 
Testament  for  startling  innovations.  What  gave 
offence  to  his  enemies  was  the  same  quality  which 
gave  value  to  the  book, — namely,  the  single  effort 
to  put  things  as  they  were.  '*What  the  "  men  of 
darkness  "  who  had  come  largely  to  control  the 
practical  working  of  religious  affairs  least  of  all  de- 
sired was  precise  truth  to  facts.  They  were  getting 
on  comfortably  with  a  version  of  truth  which  suited 
them  very  well,  and  were  not  inclined  to  see  their 
precious  ease  invaded  by  any  restless  seeking  for 
ultimate  accuracy.  They  felt,  and  quite  truly,  that 
any  jarring  of  the  foundations  might  bring  the  whole 
structure  of  ceremonies  and  usages  in  which  they 
were  thriving,  about  their  ears.  Erasmus  might 
protest  as  he  would,  but  the  instinct  of  self-preserva- 


DEVICE  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  FROBEN. 


I5I4]  The  St.  Jerome  205 

tion  on  the  part  of  those  who  were  enjoying  the 
high  places  of  the  Church  was  rightly  alarmed. 

The  other  work  on  which  Erasmus  spent  most  of 
his  time  in  England  was  his  share  in  a  new  edition 
of  St.  Jerome,  which  was  being  brought  out  by  the 
great  printing  house  of  Froben  at  Basel.  It  will  be 
more  in  order,  perhaps,  to  speak  of  this  when  we 
have  followed  Erasmus  to  the  Continent  and  seen 
him  established  in  the  full  career  of  an  editor  and 
author  which  was  to  occupy  the  remainder  of  his 
life.  It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  quote  his 
own  description  of  the  principles  which  governed 
him  in  his  editorial  work.  He  was  accused  of  inac- 
curacy and  undue  haste  in  giving  to  the  world  the 
results  of  unripe  scholarship.  He  acknowledges  the 
facts,  but  defends  himself  as  follows,'  speaking  at 
the  moment  of  the  epistles  of  Jerome: 

"  I  gave  such  care  to  this  work  [the  edition  of  1524] 
that  the  attentive  reader  may  easily  see  that  I  did  not 
undertake  this  revision  in  vain.  The  control  of  ancient 
manuscripts  was  not  lacking,  but  these  could  not  pre- 
clude the  use  of  conjecture  in  some  places;  but  these 
conjectures  I  so  modified  in  the  notes  that  they  could  not 
easily  deceive  anyone,  but  could  only  stimulate  in  the 
reader  a  zeal  for  investigation.  And  I  hope  it  may  come 
to  pass  that  someone,  equipped  with  more  correct  texts 
may  restore  also  those  points  which  have  escaped  me. 
To  these  I  will  gladly  render  the  praise  due  to  their  in- 
dustry and  they  will  have  no  reason  to  find  fault  with  my 
attempts;  for  while  I  have  been  fortunate  in  restoring 

'  Catalogus  lucubrationum ,  i. 


2o6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

many  points,  in  some  I  have  been  compelled  to  follow 
the  ancient  proverb: — '  not  as  we  would,  but  as  we  can.* 

"  For  there  are  men  of  such  a  disposition  that  if  they 
can  add  anything  to  the  efforts  of  their  predecessors, 
they  claim  all  the  praise  for  themselves  and  make  a  tre- 
mendous fuss  if  one  has  even  noddedat  any  point  or  not 
accomplished  what  one  has  undertaken.  I  know  not 
whether  we  ought  to  despise  more  the  rudeness  of  such 
persons  or  their  ingratitude.  No  one  stands  in  their 
way,  if  they"  wish  to  produce  something  better.  They 
say  that  nothing  ought  to  be  published  that  is  not  per- 
fect. Now,  whoever  says  that,  simply  says  that  nothing 
at  all  should  be  published  ;  nor  was  ever  anything  pro- 
perly edited  down  to  the  present  day.  I  was  editing  these 
things  for  Batavians,  for  monks  and  theologians,  who 
were  for  the  most  part  without  classic  learning;  for  lib- 
eral study  had  not  yet  penetrated  so  far  as  these. 

"  If  one  will  just  consider,  he  will  see  that  I  am  enter- 
ing upon  no  unworthy  or  unfruitful  field.  Will  not 
Italian  critics  give  the  same  indulgence  to  barbarians 
which  they  have  been  compelled,  willing  or  unwilling, 
to  give  to  their  own  scholars,  to  Filelfo,  to  Hermolaus,  or 
to  Valla,  whenever  during  the  past  sixty  years  they  have 
aided  the  learning  of  the  community  by  their  zeal  in 
translating  Greek  authors  or  emending  Latin  ones  ? 
Those  who  publish  nothing  avoid  all  blame,  but  earn  no 
praise; — nay,  while  they  are  barely  avoiding  the  blame 
of  men,  they  fall  into  the  worst  kind  of  blame ; — unless, 
indeed,  he  is  less  blameworthy  who  gives  to  his  famished 
friends  nothing  from  his  splendid  table,  than  he  who 
freely  and  gladly  gives  what  he  has  and  would  be  glad  to 
give  more  sumptuous  things  if  he  had  them.  ...  I 
confess  myself  greatly  indebted  to  Beatus  Rhenanus, 
who  has  given  us  Tertullian  emended  at  many  points. 


DEVICE  OF    FROBEN. 


I5I4]         The  "  Copia  Verborum  *'         207 

though  it  is  incomplete  and  beside  that  is  thick-sown 
with  blunders.  He  does  no  injury  to  his  reputation  who 
gives  a  service  proportioned  to  his  day  and  opens  the  way 
to  others  to  do  more  finished  work.  Nor  have  I  suffered 
from  any  more  unjust  critics  than  those  who  publish 
nothing  and  do  not  even  teach,  as  if  they  begrudged  any 
usefulness  to  the  world,  or  as  if  whatever  they  gave  to  the 
community  were  a  loss  to  themselves.  And  if  ever  they 
detect  a  human  error,  what  snickerings,  what  abuse, 
what  a  rumpus!  " 

These  are  really  admirable  sentiments,  worthy  of 
a  man  of  literary  courage  and  generosity.  On  the 
whole  Erasmus  lived  up  to  them.  He  was  impatient 
of  criticism  and  inclined  to  believe  his  critics  actuated 
by  motives  of  personal  dislike ;  but  where  he  felt  the 
friendly  note  in  criticism  he  was  ready  to  accept  it 
and  to  discuss  the  point  in  the  spirit  of  worthy 
rivalry.  Much  that  he  wrote  was  hasty  and  incom- 
plete, but  he  turote,  and  he  did  indeed  open  the  way 
for  others  of  less  individual  quality  to  follow  his 
leading. 

As  a  fruit  of  the  English  residence,  we  must 
briefly  notice  the  treatise,  de  duplici  copia  verborum  et 
rerum,^  written  by  Erasmus,  as  he  says,  at  the  re- 
quest of  Colet,  and  dedicated  to  him  in  a  really 
beautiful  and  touching  preface.  The  Copia  of  Eras- 
mus is  a  text-book  of  rhetoric,  intended  for  ad- 
vanced Latin  scholars  who  have  already  mastered 
the  principles  of  grammar  and  are  well  on  the  way 
to  the  acquisition  of  a  good  style.     Its  value  for  our 

M.,  pp.  i-iro. 


y 


2o8  Desiderius  Erasmus  [isog- 

purpose  is  in  giving  a  clue  to  the  principles  of  com- 
position which  were  to  govern  Erasmus  in  all  his 
writing  ;  and  thus  preparing  us  to  interpret  what  he 
says  with  the  greater  intelligence.  No  opinion  as 
to  his  meaning  on  any  question  can  be  worth  much 
which  is  not  based  upon  a  clear  comprehension  of 
his  literary  method.  He  was  a  literary  artist  and 
we  are  here  introduced  to  some  of  the  most  valu- 
able secrets  of  his  art.  They  must  never  be  forgot- 
ten when  we  try  to  find  out  what  he  really  means  at 
a  given  moment. 

The  word  copia  is  a  difficult  one  to  translate.  Its 
first  meaning  of  "  abundance  "  is  liable,  as  Erasmus 
begins  by  showing,  to  be  understood  as  mere  ver- 
bosity. 

"  We  see  not  a  few  mortals,  who,  striving  to  emulate 
this  divine  virtue  with  more  zeal  than  success,  fall  into  a 
feeble  and  disjointed  loquacity,  obscuring  the  subject 
and  burdening  the  wretched  ears  of  their  hearers  with  a 
vacant  mass  of  words  and  sentences  crowded  together 
beyond  all  possibility  of  enjoyment.  And  writers  who 
have  tried  to  lay  down  the  principles  of  this  art  have 
gained  no  other  result  than  to  display  their  own  poverty 
while  expounding  abundance." 

He  proposes  to  give  only  certain  directions,  and 
to  illustrate  them  by  formulas  which  may  prove 
convenient  to  writers.  Copia  includes  the  ideas  of 
richness  and  variety,  but  must  avoid  the  errors  of 
mere  quantity  and  change.  Not  all  fulness  con- 
tributes to  completeness  of  effect,  and  not  all  varia- 
tion in  style  helps  towards  real  illustration  of  the 


I5I4]         The  "  Copia  Verborum  "         209 

thought.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  we  find  Erasmus 
the  true  apostle  of  common-sense.  After  all,  the 
purpose  of  rhetoric  is  primarily  to  say  something 
worth  saying,  and  to  say  it  in  such  a  way  that  it 
will  commend  itself  to  the  reader.  The  purpose  of 
these  directions  will  therefore  be  to  show  how  the 
essential  point  may  be  condensed  into  few  words 
and  yet  nothing  be  left  out,  and  how,  on  the  other 
hand,  one  may  expand  into  copia  and  yet  have 
nothing  in  superfluity. 

The  first  rule  of  the  Copia  verborum  is 

"  that  speech  should  be  fitting  \apta\  good  Latin,  elegant 
and  pure  \pura\.  .  .  .  What  clothing  is  to  the  body, 
style  is  to  the  thought;  for  just  as  the  beauty  and  dignity 
of  the  body  are  heightened  or  diminished  by  dress  and 
care,  so  is  thought  by  words.  They  are  therefore  greatly 
mistaken  who  think  it  makes  no  difference  in  what  words 
a  given  thought  is  expressed  if  only  it  can  be  understood. 
So  also  there  is  the  same  principle  in  changing  the  dress 
and  in  varying  the  speech.  It  is  our  first  care  that  our 
dress  be  neither  mean,  nor  unsuited  to  our  figure,  nor  of 
a  wrong  pattern.  It  would  be  a  pity  if  a  figure  good  in 
itself  were  to  be  spoiled  by  mean  garments ;  it  would  be 
ridiculous  if  a  man  were  to  appear  in  public  in  woman's 
dress,  and  a  disgrace  if  one  were  to  be  seen  in  a  prepos- 
terous garb  or  with  his  clothes  turned  back  side  before. 
"  And  so,  if  anyone  tries  to  put  on  an  affectation  of 
copia  before  he  has  attained  the  purity  of  the  Latin 
tongue,  he  is,  in  my  judgment,  no  less  ridiculous  than  a 
poor  beggar,  who,  having  not  a  single  garment  fit  to  wear, 
should  thereupon  change  one  set  of  rags  for  another  and 
come  out  into  the  market-place  to  show  off  his  beggary 


2IO  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

for  wealth.  And  the  oftener  he  should  do  this,  would 
he  not  seem  so  much  the  more  foolish  ?  I  think  he 
would.  And  just  as  foolish  are  those  who  affect  copia 
and  yet  cannot  say  in  plain  words  what  they  want  to  say. 
As  if  they  were  ashamed  to  appear  to  stammer  a  little, 
they  make  their  stammering  only  the  more  offensive  in 
every  possible  way,  as  if  they  were  on  a  wager  with  them- 
selves to  talk  as  barbarously  as  ever  they  can.  I  like  to 
see  a  wealthy  house  furnished  in  great  variety,  but  I  want 
it  all  to  be  elegant  and  not  to  be  filled  up  with  articles  of 
willow  and  fig-wood  and  vessels  of  Samian  crockery. 
At  a  splendid  banquet  I  like  to  have  many  kinds  of  food 
brought  on,  but  who  could  bear  it  if  anyone  should 
serve  a  hundred  sorts  of  food  not  one  of  which  was  fit 
to  eat  ?  " 

Having  thus  admirably  laid  down  the  rule  of 
moderation  and  good  taste,  Erasmus  goes  on  to 
details.  He  shows  what  kinds  of  words  are  to  be 
avoided  and  to  what  extent.  His  comments  on  the 
use  of  obscene  words  are  interesting  in  view  of  the 
general  practice  of  his  time  and,  indeed,  upon  occa- 
sion, of  his  own  practice.  Certain  words  are  obscene 
because  they  represent  obscene  things;  others  be- 
cause they  are  twisted  from  their  harmless  mean- 
ings. "  What  then  is  the  principle  of  obscenity  ? 
—  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  usage,  not  of 
anybody  and  everybody,  but  of  those  whose  speech  is 
correct."  Of  himself  it  must  be  said  that  in  general 
he  lived  pretty  well  up  to  his  principles.  Where  he 
offends  in  this  respect  it  is  generally  in  a  kind  of 
composition,  as,  for  example,  in  many  of  the  Collo- 
quies, in  which  he  simply  lets  himself  go,  producing 


15 14]         The  *'Copia  Verborum  "         211 

his  effect  by  a  freedom  which  he  carefully  avoids  in 
other  forms  of  writing.  He  was,  if  one  may  say  so, 
artistically  obscene. 

In  spite  of  his  admiration  for  pure  Latinity,  he  does 
not  hesitate  to  admit  Greek  words  according  to  a 
rather  dangerous  canon.  Greek  words,  he  says,  may 
be  used  when  they  are  more  significant,  or  shorter, 
or  stronger,  or  more  graceful,  "  for  no  Latin  word 
can  equal  the  grace  of  a  Greek  word."     In  short, 

"  whenever  any  certain  appropriateness  [commodifas]  in- 
vites us  we  may  properly  interweave  Greek  with  Latin, 
especially  when  we  are  writing  to  learned  men;  but  when 
we  are  not  so  invited  and  deliberately  weave  a  discourse 
that  is  half  Latin  and  half  Greek,  this  may  perhaps  be 
pardoned  in  youths  who  are  training  themselves  to  readi- 
ness in  both  languages,  but  for  men  this  kind  of  display 
is,  in  my  judgment,  far  from  becoming  and  is  as  undig- 
nified as  if  one  should  write  a  book  in  prose  and  verse 
mixed  up  together,  as,  in  fact,  has  been  done  by  some 
learned  men." 

As  to  repetition,  a  trick  of  rhetoric  often  em- 
ployed by  Erasmus,  he  disapproves  it  in  theory,  but 
admits  that  it  may  be  done  "  when  the  repetition 
helps  the  thought  and  when  the  weariness  of  it  can 
be  avoided  by  a  certain  variety. ' '  Cicero  repeats, 
but  he  says  "  things  similar,  not  the  same  things." 

"  I  insist  upon  this  the  more  earnestly  because  I  have 
heard  preachers  of  considerable  fame,  especially  in  Italy, 
wasting  their  time  in  affected  synonyms  of  this  sort,  as, 
for  example,  if  one  interpreting  the  word  of  the  Psalmist, 


212  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

*  create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God! '  should  say,  'create 
in  me  a  clean  heart,  a  pure  heart,  a  spotless  heart,  a 
stainless  heart,  a  heart  free  from  baseness,  a  heart  un- 
spoiled by  vice,  a  heart  purified,  a  heart  made  clean,  a 
heart  like  snow,'  and  then  should  do  the  same  in  other 
words,  this  kind  of  copia  is  not  far  removed  from  mere 
babble." 

So  he  goes  on,  through  the  whole  range  of  figures 
of  speech,  laying  down  a  general  principle  and  illus- 
trating it  with  a  wealth  of  classical  learning  that  is 
simply  overwhelming.  It  is  rather  dreary  reading, 
but  is  relieved  every  now  and  then/by  flashes  of 
sense  and  humour  that  must  have/commended  the 
book  to  all  fair-minded  men.  'L.No  word  ought  to 
seem  to  us  harsh  or  obsolete  which  is  to  be  found  in 
an  approved  author.  On  this  point  I  differ  far  and 
wide  from  those  who  shudder  at  every  word  as  a 
barbarism  which  is  not  to  be  read  in  Cicero." 

When  he  has  made  his  principles  clear  he  proceeds 
to  illustrate  still  further  by  ringing  all  possible 
changes  on  a  model  sentence,  tu(B  Uteres  me  mag- 
nopere  delectarunt,  to  the  extent  of  a  printed  folio 
page.  The  development  of  semper  diim  vivam,  tut 
memmero,  fills  two  folio  pages.  The  pupil  who 
should  carry  out  these  illustrations  intelligently 
would  be  almost  a  master  of  Latin  prose.  The 
greater  part  of  the  rest  of  the  copia  verborum  is  filled 
with  formulas  for  the  expression  of  a  multitude  of 
ideas  most  likely  to  occur  in  the  work  of  the  classi- 
cal pupil.  This  is  pure  hack-work,  a  mere  mechan- 
ical enumeration,  but  likely  to  be  of  great  use  to 
those  for  whom  it  was  intended.     It  would  be  an 


tsM]         The  ''Copia  Verborum  ** 

admirable  thing  if  our  own  high-school  pupils  c* 
be  made  to  commit  great  parts  of  the  de  copia 
borum  to  memory. 

The  plan  of  the  Copia  rerum  is  similar  to  that  of 
the  former  part.  It  is  an  elaborate  analysis  of  the 
various  ways  in  which  discourse  may  be  enriched 
and  amplified.  Erasmus  puts  much  less  of  himself 
into  this  part,  but  at  the  close  sums  up  the  argument 
with  his  usual  good  sense  and  judgment. 

"  He  who  likes  the  brevity  of  the  Spartans  will  first  of 
all  avoid  prefaces  and  expressions  of  feeling  in  the  manner 
of  the  Athenians.  He  will  state  his  case  simply  and  con- 
cisely. He  will  use  arguments, — not  all  but  at  least  the 
chief  ones,  and  will  present  these  not  in  detail,  but  com- 
pactly, so  that  the  argument  shall  be  almost  in  the  very 
wording,  if  anyone  cares  to  work  it  out.  Let  him  be 
content  to  make  his  point  and  be  very  sparing  with 
amplifications,  similes,  examples,etc., etc., unless  these  be 
so  essential  that  he  may  not  omit  them  without  offence. 
Let  him  also  abstain  from  all  kinds  of  figures  which 
make  language  rich,  splendid,  telling,  elaborate,  or  at- 
tractive. Let  him  not  treat  the  same  subject  in  various 
forms,  or  so  explain  single  words  by  expressions  of  mean- 
ing, that  much  more  is  understood  than  is  heard  and  one 
thing  may  be  gathered  from  another.  On  the  other  hand 
he  who  seeks  for  copia  will  desire  to  expand  his  material 
pretty  nearly  according  to  the  rules  I  have  laid  down. 

"  But  let  each  beware,  lest  through  affectation  he  be 
carried  over  into  the  fault  which  lies  nearest  him.  Let 
the  lover  of  brevity  see  to  it  that  he  does  not  merely  use 
few  words,  but  that  he  says  in  the  fewest  words  the  very 
best  thing  he  can,     .     .     .     For  nothing  is  so  conducive 


214  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

to  brevity  of  style  as  aptness  and  elegance  of  words,  and 
if  we  add  simplicity,  it  will  be  easy  to  avoid  obscurity,  a 
vice  which  is  very  apt  to  follow  a  striving  after  brevity. 
But  here  again  we  must  look  out  that  our  speech  does 
not  grow  cold  through  lack  of  all  warmth  of  feeling. 
Therefore  let  the  matter  be  so  put  before  the  eye  that, 
of  itself,  it  may  silently  take  a  certain  hold  upon  the 
mind.     Let  all  be  sweetened  with  the  Attic  charm." 

The  Copia  proved  its  value  by  a  great  and  rapid 
sale.  It  was  first  printed  in  151 1,  and  went  through 
nearly  sixty  editions  in  the  author's  lifetime.  Since 
then  it  has  been  repeatedly  reprinted  and  epitomised. 
Coming  as  it  did  so  soon  after  the  Praise  of  Folly, 
and  written  as  it  was  in  the  intervals  of  very  serious 
occupation  with  the  New  Testament  and  Jerome,  it 
gave  to  the  world  a  very  striking  proof  of  Erasmus' 
immense  versatility  of  talent  and  wide-reaching  in- 
tellectual interests.  Taken  together  these  works 
make  it  quite  clear  that  when  Erasmus  left  England 
in  1 5 14  he  had  commended  himself  to  every  class  of 
thinking  men  by  some  direct  appeal  to  what  specially 
concerned  it. 

In  all  the  biographies  of  Erasmus  it  seems  to  be 
tacitly  assumed  that  he  was  on  intimate  terms  with 
Thomas  More  during  this  long  residence  in  England. 
In  fact,  however,  contemporary  evidence  on  this 
point  is  almost  entirely  wanting.  There  is  but  one 
letter  from  Erasmus  to  More  in  this  period,  and  none 
whatever  from  More  to  him.  If  it  be  said  that  there 
was  no  need  of  correspondence,  since  the  friends 
could  meet  at  any  time  in  London,  the  same  is  true 
of  Colet  and  Ammonius,  from  and  to  whom  we  have 


1514]  England 

so  many  letters.  When  Erasmus  goes  to  Lond( 
it  is  Ammonius  who  finds  him  a  lodging;  he  it  ^s 
who  sends  him  his  wine  and  helps  him  to  a  horse. 
More  was  certainly  greatly  occupied  with  public 
affairs  at  this  time,  but  he  found  leisure  to  write  his 
Utopia,  which  was  published  in  1515,  very  soon 
after  Erasmus'  departure  from  England,  The  real 
relations  between  these  men,  who,  in  spite  of  similar 
tastes,  were  of  quite  different  character,  seem  to 
have  been  expressed  rather  in  their  later  correspond- 
ence than  in  any  close  intimacy  at  this  time. 

During  this  residence  in  England  occurred  doubt- 
less the  visits  of  Erasmus  to  the  shrine  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  at  Walsingham  and  to  that  of  Thomas  k 
Becket  at  Canterbury,  which  are  immortalised  in 
the  very  famous  colloquy,  Peregrinatio  religionis 
ergo,  the  Religious  Pilgrimage,'  Though  published 
some  years  afterwards,  there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  this  dialogue  faithfully  represents  the 
writer's  state  of  mind  in  15 13-14.  The  essential 
part  of  it  is  the  skilful  balancing  between  conformity 
to  prescribed  usage  and  an  open  contempt  for  the 
whole  paraphernalia  of  relics,  miracles,  votive  offer- 
ings, and  lying  tales,  of  which  these  and  similar 
places  were  the  centres,  Erasmus  represents  him- 
self as  a  devout  believer  in  the  Holy  Virgin  and  in 
the  holiness  of  saints ;  but  as  a  total  sceptic  regard- 
ing the  whole  machinery  of  their  worship.  His 
cautious  language  and  his  protestations  of  charity 
for  ignorance  and  human  frailty  cannot  in  the  least 

M.,  774-787. 


2i6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1509- 

conceal  his  real  disgust  at  these  perversions  of  an 
honest  and  honourable  sentiment. 

In  the  visit  to  Canterbury,  Erasmus  represents 
himself  as  accompanied  by  a  high  clerical  dignitary 
of  England,  whose  open  expressions  of  distrust  and 
scandalised  piety  he  endeavours  to  moderate.  That 
this  person  was  Colet  is  made  clear  by  a  later  refer- 
ence. The  fact  serves  to  connect  Erasmus  with  the 
feeling,  growing  henceforth  more  intense  and  finally 
culminating  in  the  suppression  of  the  English  mon- 
asteries, that  a  vast  perversion  of  true  religion  had 
taken  place.  It  was  only  a  question  of  time  when 
the  evil  would  become  intolerable.  Erasmus  doubt- 
less contributed  his  share  in  the  fostering  of  this 
rebellious  feeling;  but  he  was  far  from  being  alone 
in  his  opinions.  The  enlightenment  of  his  genera- 
tion was  all  pointing  the  same  way.  All  that  was 
needed  was  a  formulation  into  some  definite  pro- 
gramme of  action,  and  for  this,  of  course,  Erasmus 
was  conspicuously  incompetent.  The  impulse  was 
to  come  from  a  mixture  of  motives,  many  of  them 
as  unworthy  as  those  they  sought  to  replace. 

In  his  treatise  on  the  True  Way  of  Prayer,  1523, 
Erasmus  sums  up  his  attitude  on  the  question  of 
relic-worship  in  a  few  words*: 

"  In  England  they  expose  to  be  kissed  the  shoe  of  St. 
Thomas,  once  bishop  of  Canterbury,  which  is,  perchance, 
the  shoe  of  some  harlequin;  and  in  any  case  what  could 
be  more  foolish  than  to  worship  the  shoe  of  a  man!  I 
have  myself  seen  them  showing  the  linen  rags  on  which 

'  Modus  orandi  Deum,  v.,  mg-F. 


I5I4]  England  217 

he  is  said  to  have  wiped  his  nose.  When  the  shrine  was 
opened  the  Abbot  and  the  rest  fell  on  their  knees  in 
worship,  raised  their  hands  to  heaven,  and  showed  their 
reverence  by  their  actions.  All  this  seemed  to  John 
Colet,  who  was  with  me,  an  unworthy  display;  I  thought 
it  was  a  thing  we  must  put  up  with  until  an  opportunity 
should  come  to  reform  it  without  disturbance." 

This  is  the  key-note  of  the  "  Erasmian  Reform," 
and  we  shall  hear  it  sounded  many  times  again  before 
the  moment  of  action  arrives. 


CHAPTER  VII 

BASEL  AND  LOUVAIN— THE  "  INSTITUTIO  PRINCIPIS 
CHRISTIANI" 

1515-1518 

ERASMUS  left  England  in  early  summer,  15 14, 
on  good  terms  with  his  English  friends  but 
without  making  such  connections  as  could  have 
served  to  keep  him  permanently  in  the  country. 
He  was  bound  to  have  explanations  ready  for  any 
emergency,  but  we  need  not  trouble  ourselves  to 
seek  other  reasons  for  his  leaving  England  than  that 
he  did  not  wish  to  stay.  He  had  accumulated  a 
considerable  stock  of  manuscripts  and  knew  that  he 
could  get  them  into  print  better  at  Basel  than  in 
London.  If  we  may  trust  a  letter '  sent  back  to 
Ammonius  from  the  castle  of  Ham,  in  Picardy,  of 
which  Lord  Mountjoy  was  governor,  he  came  near 
losing  these  precious  papers  through  what  he  always 
fancied  to  be  the  special  malice  of  the  English 
customs  officials ;  but  happily  they  were  safely  re- 
stored to  him. 

The  short  stay  at  Ham  is  memorable  for  a  famous 
letter  written  from  there  to  Prior  Servatius  of  the 

»iii.',  137. 

si8 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  219 

monastery  at  Steyn,  where,  we  remember,  Erasmus 
had  passed  the  few  years  of  his  monastic  experience. 
We  gather  from  this  letter  that  Servatius,  a  former 
companion  of  his  at  Steyn,  had  written  to  offer  him 
a  residence  there  where  he  might  pass  the  remnant 
of  his  days  in  peace.  Erasmus,  in  respectful  and 
serious  language,  reminds  Servatius  that  he  had 
never  really  felt  any  calling  to  the  life  of  seclusion, 
and  goes  over  the  familiar  ground  of  his  bodily  and 
mental  unfitness  for  it,  the  absurdity  of  supposing 
that  a  boy  of  seventeen  could  know  himself  well 
enough  to  decide  once  for  all  so  momentous  and 
complicated  a  question,  and  the  compelling  attrac- 
tion of  a  free  life  devoted  to  intercourse  with  the 
highest  things.  He  shows  that  his  life  has  been, 
humanly  speaking,  a  worthy  one :  he  has  cultivated 
virtue  and  avoided  vice ;  he  has  had  a  delicate  body 
to  take  care  of  and  knows  that  Holland  would  be 
death  to  him.  As  to  the  conventual  life  itself, 
Erasmus  lets  himself  go  in  sweeping  condemnation, 
yet  preserving  still  a  certain  dignity  that  is  far  more 
convincing  than  any  extravagant  abuse.' 

"  You,  perhaps,  would  think  it  the  highest  felicity  to 
die  among  the  brethren.  In  fact  not  only  you  but  almost 
everyone  is  deceived  and  imposed  upon  by  this  notion 
that  Christ  and  true  piety  are  to  be  found  in  certain 
places,  in  dress,  in  food,  in  prescribed  ceremonies.  We 
fancy  a  man  is  ruined,  if  he  put  on  a  black  gown  instead 
of  a  white  one,  if  he  change  a  cowl  for  a  hat,  if  he  from 
time  to  time  change  his  residence.  But  I  dare  say  the 
opposite,  that  great  injury  to  Christian  piety  has  come 

'iii.«,  1528-A. 


220  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

from  those  so-called  *  religious '  acts,  although  they 
were,  perhaps,  first  introduced  with  a  pious  purpose. 
Gradually  they  have  increased  and  broken  up  into  six 
thousand  diversities.  The  approval  of  the  supreme  pon- 
tiffs has  been  given  to  them,  but  in  many  ways  quite  too 
easily  and  indulgently  ;  for  what  is  more  corrupt  and 
impious  than  those  loose  religious  practices  ?  Why,  if 
you  speak  only  of  praiseworthy,  even  of  the  most  praise- 
worthy ones,  I  know  not  what  image  of  Christ  you  will 
find  in  them  beyond  certain  chilling  and  Judaising  cere- 
monies. By  these  things  they  please  themselves  and 
condemn  others, — although  it  is  the  teaching  of  Christ 
that  all  the  world  is  as  one  great  house,  or  as  it  were 
one  monastery,  and  all  men  are  its  canons  and  its  breth- 
ren ;  that  the  sacrament  of  baptism  is  the  supreme  act 
of  religion  and  that  we  are  to  consider,  not  where  we 
live,  but  how  we  live," 

He  justifies  his  wandering  life  by  the  good  char- 
acter he  has  everywhere  maintained. 

"  If  I  am  not  approved  by  everyone — a  thing  I  do  not 
strive  for — surely  I  am  in  good  standing  with  the  chief 
men  at  Rome.  There  was  not  a  cardinal  who  did  not 
receive  me  as  a  brother,  though  I  had  no  such  ambition 
for  myself,  especially  the  cardinal  of  St.  George,  the 
cardinal  of  Bologna,  cardinal  Grimani,  the  cardinal 
of  Fornovo  [?],  and  he  who  is  now  supreme  pontiff,  to  say 
nothing  of  archdeacons  and  men  of  learning  ;  and  this 
honour  was  paid,  not  to  wealth,  which  I  neither  have  nor 
desire,  nor  to  ambition,  to  which  I  was  ever  a  stranger, 
but  to  letters  alone,  which  our  countrymen  laugh  at,  but 
the  Italians  worship. 

"  In  England  there  is  not  a  bishop  who  is  not  glad  to 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  221 

salute  me,  who  does  not  seek  me  as  a  table-companion, 
who  does  not  wish  me  as  an  inmate  of  his  house.  The 
king  himself,  just  before  my  departure  from  Italy, 
wrote  me  a  most  affectionate  letter  with  his  own  hand, 
and  still  speaks  of  me  in  the  most  honourable  and 
friendly  fashion.  As  often  as  I  pay  my  respects  to  him 
he  embraces  me  most  affectionately  and  looks  at  me 
with  such  friendly  eyes  that  you  can  see  that  he  thinks 
as  well  of  me  as  he  speaks.  The  queen  wished  me  to 
be  her  teacher  ;  everyone  knows  that,  if  I  had  chosen  to 
spend  even  a  few  months  at  the  royal  court,  I  might 
have  heaped  up  as  many  benefices  as  you  please,  but  I 
subordinate  everything  to  the  opportunity  of  leisure  for 
study." 

Then  follows  a  very  glowing  account  of  the  money 
he  has  received  in  England  from  Warham,  Mount- 
joy,  and  others. 

"  The  two  universities,  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  are 
vying  with  each  other  to  get  possession  of  me  ;  at  Cam- 
bridge I  taught  for  many  months  Greek  and  sacred 
literature,  and  that  for  nothing  as  I  am  determined 
always  to  do.*  There  are  colleges  there,  in  which  there 
is  so  much  of  true  religion  that  you  could  not  fail  to 
prefer  them  to  any  'religious'  life,  if  you  should  se^ 
them.  There  is  at  London  John  Colet,  dean  of  St. 
Paul's,  a  man  who  combines  the  greatest  learning  with 
the  most  admirable  piety,  a  man  of  great  influence  with 
all  men  ;  he  is  so  fond  of  me,  as  everyone  knows,  that 
he  lives  not  more  intimately  with  anyone  than  with  me, 

'  If  this  means  anything,  it  must  mean  without  fees  from  students, 
for,  supposing  Erasmus  to  have  held  the  Lady  Margaret  foundation, 
there  was  certainly  a  salary  attached  to  his  position. 


222  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

— to  say  nothing  of  countless  others,  lest  I  weary  you  at 
once  with  my  boasting  and  my  much  speaking." 

As  to  his  writings  he  calls  the  attention  of  Serva- 
tius  to  the  Enchiridion  as  adapted  to  lead  many  to 
piety,  the  Adagia  as  useful  to  all  kinds  of  learning, 
and  the  Copia  as  serviceable  to  preachers.  The 
Praise  of  Folly  he  naturally  and  prudently  leaves 
unmentioned. 

"  During  the  last  two  years,  besides  much  other  work, 
I  revised  the  epistles  of  Jerome,  marking  with  an  obelus 
spurious  and  interpolated  passages.  By  a  comparison 
of  ancient  Greek  texts  I  have  emended  the  whole  New 
Testament  and  have  annotated  more  than  a  thousand 
passages,  not  without  profit  for  the  theologians.  I  have 
begun  commentaries  to  the  epistles  of  Paul  and  shall 
complete  them  when  I  have  disposed  of  the  others.  For 
I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  spend  my  life  in  sacred 
studies  and  to  this  end  I  am  devoting  all  my  spare  time. 
In  this  work  men  of  great  repute  say  that  I  can  do  what 
others  cannot ;  in  your  kind  of  life  I  should  simply  ac- 
complish nothing  at  all,  I  am  on  intimate  terms  with 
many  learned  and  serious  men,  both  here  [England  ?]  and 
in  Italy  and  in  France,  but  I  have  thus  far  found  no  one 
who  would  advise  me  to  return  to  you,  or  think  it  the 
better  course.  Nay,  more,  even  your  predecessor,  Nicho- 
las Wittenherus,  always  used  to  advise  me  rather  to 
attach  myself  to  some  bishop,  adding  that  he  knew  both 
my  nature  and  the  ways  of  his  brethren." 

Finally  he  goes  into  the  old  story  of  his  monastic 
gown,  "  laid  aside  in  Italy  lest  I  be  killed,  in  Eng- 
land because  it  would  not  be  tolerated,"  and  con- 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  223 

eludes  by  repeating  his  determination  not  to  return 
to  a  kind  of  life  in  which,  now  more  than  ever, 
there  was  no  place  for  him.'  This  letter  shows  us 
how  Erasmus  could  paint  his  English  life  when  it 
was  a  question  of  raising  his  market  price.  The 
same  note  of  self-valuation  is  sounded  in  a  letter  to 
his  old  friend,  the  abbot  of  St.  Bertin  in  Flanders, 
written  from  London  in  15 13  or  15 14.  He  is  seri- 
ously considering  returning  to  his  own  cpjuntry  and 
would  be  glad  to  do  so,  if  only  the  prince — presum- 
ably Charles  of   Burgundy,    the   future  emperor — 

'  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  famous  Grunnius  letter,  asking  the 
papal  dispensation  from  the  monastic  dress,  was  despatched  to  Rome 
at  the  same  time  that  this  letter  to  Servatius  was  written  from  the 
castle  of  Ham.  The  interesting  manuscript  discoveries  of  Professor 
Vischer  of  Hasel  *  have  led  the  learned  finder  to  take  a  step  beyond 
my  suggestion  of  a  strong  resemblance  between  the  form  of  this  letter 
and  that  of  the  later  Colloquies  (see  p.  5).  He  goes  so  far  as  to  be- 
lieve that  both  the  letter  and  the  reply  to  it  were  a  deliberate  fabric- 
ation of  Erasmus  after  the  whole  matter  of  the  dispensation  had 
been  settled.  Its  object  was,  he  thinks,  to  cover  up  the  traces  of  a 
previous  negotiation  with  the  papacy  carried  on  through  Ammonius 
and  intended  to  free  Erasmus  once  for  all  from  any  danger  of  being 
forced  back  again  into  the  monastic  life.  Vischer's  documents  give 
us  indeed  a  very  satisfactory  explanation  of  some  of  the  mysterious 
allusions  in  the  correspondence  with  Ammonius  in  15 16  and  15 17. 
They  show  us  plainly  tliat  Ammonius,  who  is  here  described  by  the 
pope  as  a  papal  "  Collector,"  was  not  only  the  mediator  in  Erasmus' 
behalf,  but  was  the  papal  agent  in  granting  the  dispensation  issued 
in  1517.  All  this,  however,  does  not  make  it  even  reasonably  clear 
that  the  Grunnius  letters  were  a  pure  fabrication.  With  all  his  shifti- 
ness Erasmus  would  hardly  have  gone  as  far  as  that.  These  letters 
still  remain,  as  to  their  date  and  precise  interpretation,  as  mysterious 
as  ever  ;  and  their  value;,as  history  is  not  increased.  Vischer's  view 
that  the  especial  occasion  for  Erasmus'  anxiety  about  the  dis[)ensation 
was  the  tumult  roused  by  his  New  Testament  is  a  reasonable  one. 

•  Vischer,  W.,  Erasmiana.    Basel,  1876. 


224  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

would  give  him  a  fortune  sufficient  for  his  modest 
leisure  {ociolum).  "  Not  that  Britain  displeases  me 
or  that  I  am  tired  of  my  Maecenases."  He  gets 
enough  and  could  get  more,  if  he  would  go  round 
about  it  ever  so  little, — we  remember  his  letters  to 
Ammonius, — only  times  are  bad;  an  island  is  an 
isolated  kind  of  place  anyway,  and  wars  are  making 
England  doubly  an  island.  Then  comes  one  of  his 
usual  tirades  against  war  in  the  abstract. 

Gradually  an  almost  conventional  form  of  refer- 
ence to  England  develops  itself  in  his  writing. 
From  a  letter'  written  to  Cardinal  Grimani  in  15 15, 
evidently  after  he  had  been  in  Basel  and  returned 
to  England  again,  we  quote  a  specimen.  He  begins 
with  an  apology  for  not  accepting  the  invitation 
given  by  the  cardinal  at  their  first  and  only  meeting 
to  return  to  him  with  a  view  to  remaining  in  Italy. 

"  I  will  explain  this  to  you  very  simply  and,  as  befits  a 
German,  frankly.  At  that  time  I  had  fully  decided  to 
go  to  England.  I  was  called  thither  by  ancient  ties  of 
friendship,  by  the  most  ample  promises  of  powerful 
friends,  by  the  devoted  favour  of  the  most  prosperous  of 
kings.  I  had  chosen  this  country  as  my  adopted  father- 
land ;  the  resting-place  of  my  declining  years  [he  was 
forty-one  at  the  time].  I  was  invited,  nay  I  was  impor- 
tuned in  repeated  letters  and  was  promised  gold  almost 
in  mountains.  From  all  this  I,  hitherto  a  man  of  severe 
habits,  a  despiser  of  wealth,  conceived  a  picture  in  my 
mind  of  such  a  power  of  gold  as  ten  streams  of  Pactolus 
could  hardly  have  washed  down.  And  I  was  afraid  that  if  I 
should  return  to  your  Eminence  I  might  change  my  mind. 

'  iii.',  141.C. 


I5I8J  Basel  and  Louvain  225 

"  For  if  you  so  weakened,  so  fired  my  mind  at  that 
first  interview,  what  would  you  not  have  done,  if  I  had 
come  into  closer  and  more  permanent  relations  ?  For 
what  heart  of  adamant  would  not  be  moved  by  the  gentle 
courtesy  of  your  manner,  your  honeyed  speech,  your 
curious  learning,  your  counsel  so  friendly  and  so  sincere; 
especially  by  the  evident  good-will  of  so  great  a  prelate. 
I  already  felt  my  decision  perceptibly  weakening  and 
began  even  to  repent  of  my  plan  and  yet  I  was  ashamed 
to  seem  so  inconstant  a  person.  I  felt  my  love  for  the 
City,  which  I  had  hardly  thrust  aside,  silently  growing 
again,  and  in  short,  had  I  not  torn  myself  away  from 
Rome  at  once,  never  should  I  have  left  it.  I  snatched 
myself  away,  lest  I  should  be  blown  back  again  and 
rather  flew  to  England  than  journeyed  thither.  [Flying 
we  have  seen,  was  Erasmus'  favourite  method  of  travel- 
ling on  paper.] 

"  Now,  then,  you  will  ask,  have  I  repented  of  my 
decision  ?  Do  I  regret  that  I  did  not  follow  the  advice 
of  so  loving  a  counsellor  ?  Lying  is  not  my  trade.  The 
thing  affects  me  variously.  I  cannot  help  a  longing  for 
Rome  as  often  as  the  great  multitude  of  attractions  there 
crowds  upon  my  thoughts." 

Then  he  enumerates  freedom,  libraries,  literary 
associations,  and  so  on. 

"  These  things  make  it  impossible  that  any  fortune, 
however  kind,  could  banish  this  Roman  longing  from  my 
heart.  As  to  England,  though  my  fortune  has  not  been 
so  bad  as  to  make  me  regret  it,  yet,  to  tell  the  truth,  it 
has  not  at  all  corresponded  either  to  my  wishes  or  the 
promises  of  my  friends." 


226  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

He  recounts  the  favours,  actual  and  expected,  of 
his  English  patrons,  especially  of  Warham,  to  whom 
he  here  pays  one  of  his  usual  glowing  tributes: 
"So  it  came  about  that  what  I  had  abandoned  at 
Rome  from  so  many  distinguished  cardinals,  and  so 
many  famous  bishops  and  learned  men,  all  this  I 
seemed  to  have  recovered  in  this  one  man."  After 
all,  the  picture  grows  a  little  brighter  as  he  goes  on. 
Now  he  is  ready  for  Rome  again.  True,  things  are 
looking  up  again  in  England, — he  wishes  it  to  be 
quite  clear  that  he  is  not  being  turned  out  of  the 
country,  but  he  hears  that  under  the  patronage  of 
the  great  Leo  all  talent  is  streaming  towards  Rome. 
He  tells  what  he  has  done  and  what  he  proposes 
to  do,  puts  in  a  good  word  for  the  persecuted 
Reuchlin,  and  promises  to  be  in  Rome  the  coming 
winter  (15 15). 

A  letter  of  the  same  date  to  Raphael,  the  cardinal 
of  St.  George,  repeats  the  same  impressions  of  Eng- 
land— vast  promises,  of  which  we  have  no  other  doc- 
umentary evidence,  and  disappointments,  equally 
without  witness.  On  his  own  evidence  we  know  of 
a  suflficient  provision  in  England  to  supply  all  modest 
requirements  of  a  scholar,  and  we  have  a  right  to  take 
him  at  his  word  that  he  wanted  nothing  more. 

From  Ham,  Erasmus  made  his  way  pretty  directly 
to  Basel,  taking  the  route  by  the  Rhine  valley. 
His  travelling  experiences  are  summed  up  in  the 
very  amusing  Colloquy  called  Diver soria,  "  The 
Inns,"  which  has  been  so  effectively  employed 
by  Mr.  Charles  Reade  in  his  "  The  Cloister  and  the 
Hearth. ' '     The  especial  point  of  this  dialogue  is  the 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  227 

difference  between  the  inns  of  France  and  of  Ger- 
many. As  to  the  former,  Erasmus  takes  those  of 
Lyons  as  typical.  Bertulphus  begins  by  saying 
that  he  cannot  see  why  so  many  people  want  to  stay 
two  or  three  days  at  Lyons — for  his  part,  he  always 
wants  to  get  to  his  journey's  end  as  fast  as  he  can. 
William  replies: 

"  Why,  I  wonder  how  anyone  can  ever  tear  himself 
away  from  there," 

Bert.   "Why  so?" 

Will.  "  Because  it  is  a  place  from  which  the  com- 
panions of  Ulysses  could  not  be  torn  away  ;  there  are 
sirens  there.  One  could  not  be  better  treated  in  his  own 
house  than  there  in  an  inn." 

Bert.  "  What  do  they  do  ?  " 

Will.  "  At  table  there  was  always  some  woman 
present,  who  enlivened  the  meal  with  her  humour  and 
her  charms.  Then  you  find  there  the  most  agreeable 
manners.  The  first  one  to  meet  you  is  the  lady  of  the 
house,  who  salutes  you,  bids  you  be  merry  and  excuse 
the  faults  of  what  is  set  before  you.  Then  follows  the 
daughter,  an  elegant  person,  so  gay  in  speech  and  man- 
ner that  she  would  have  cheered  up  Cato  himself.  They 
converse  with  you  not  as  with  strange  guests,  but  as 
with  familiar  friends." 

Bert.  '*  I  recognise  the  refinement  of  the  French." 

Will.  "  But,  as  these  could  not  always  be  present  on 
account  of  domestic  duties  and  the  welcoming  of  other 
guests,  there  was  always  at  hand  a  maid-servant  thor- 
oughly posted  in  all  kinds  of  chaff ;  she  alone  could 
take  up  the  jokes  of  everyone,  and  kept  things  going 
until  the  daughter  came  back.  The  mother  was  quite 
along  in  years." 


2  28  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

Bert.  "  But  how  about  the  provision  ?  for  one  can't 
fill  one's  belly  with  stories." 

Will.  "  Really  splendid.  I  can't  understand  how 
they  can  entertain  at  so  small  a  price.  Then  after  din- 
ner they  amuse  you  with  merry  tales,  so  that  you  cannot 
get  tired.  I  thought  I  was  at  home  and  not  in  a  strange 
land." 

Bert.  "  How  about  the  chambers  ?  " 

Will.  "  Always  some  girls  about,  laughing,  frolick- 
ing, and  playing.  They  asked  of  their  own  accord  if  we 
had  any  soiled  linen,  washed  it,  and  brought  it  back  re- 
splendent. Need  I  say  more  ?  We  saw  everywhere 
only  girls  and  women,  except  in  the  stables,  and  even 
there  the  maids  were  often  bursting  in.  When  you  go 
away,  they  embrace  you  and  dismiss  you  with  as  much 
affection  as  if  you  were  all  brothers  or  the  nearest  of 
relatives." 

Bert.  "I  dare  say  that  suits  the  French  well  enough, 
but  for  my  part  I  like  better  the  customs  of  the  Germans 
as  being  more  suited  to  men." 

Will.  "  I  have  never  happened  to  be  in  Germany,  so, 
if  you  don't  mind,  pray  let  us  hear  how  they  receive  a 
guest." 

Bert.  "  I  cannot  say  whether  it  is  the  same  every- 
where, but  I  will  tell  what  I  have  seen.  No  one  wel- 
comes the  newcomer,  nor  do  they  seem  to  want  guests  ; 
for  that  would  seem  to  them  mean  and  low  and  unworthy 
the  seriousness  of  a  German.  When  you  have  been 
calling  a  long  time,  someone  sticks  his  head  out  of  the 
little  window  of  the  room  where  the  stove  is,  like  a  tor- 
toise out  of  its  shell.  They  live  in  these  rooms  almost 
until  midsummer.  You  have  to  ask  him  whether  you 
may  stay,  and  if  he  does  n't  say  '  no '  you  know  that 
you  are  to  have  a  place.     You  ask  where  the  stables  are 


15 18]  Basel  and  Louvain  229 

and  he  shows  you  with  a  motion  of  his  hand,  and  you 
may  take  care  of  your  horse  as  best  you  can.  In  the 
larger  inns  a  man  shows  you  to  the  stables  and  points  out 
a  poor  enough  place  for  your  horse.  The  better  places 
they  keep  for  the  late-comers,  especially  for  the  nobility. 
If  you  complain,  the  first  thing  you  hear  is,  *  If  you  don't 
like  it  here,  go  to  another  inn.'  In  the  cities  it  is  all 
you  can  do  to  get  a  little  hay  and  you  have  to  pay  for 
it  about  as  much  as  for  grain.  When  you  have  cared 
for  your  horse  you  go  over  into  the  common  room, 
riding-boots,  baggage,  mud,  and  all." 

Will.  "  In  France  they  show  you  a  separate  room 
where  you  can  change  your  dress,  brush  up,  get  warm, 
and  even  take  a  nap  if  you  please." 

Bert.  "  There  's  nothing  of  the  sort  here.  In  the 
common  furnace  you  pull  off  your  boots,  put  on  your 
slippers,  change  your  dress  if  you  will  ;  your  dripping 
clothes  you  hang  by  the  stove  and  betake  yourself  there 
to  dry  off.  Water  is  ready  if  you  wish  to  wash  your 
hands,  but  generally  so  nasty  that  you  have  to  go  hunting 
about  for  more  water  to  wash  away  that  first  ablution." 

Will.  "  It 's  a  fine  thing  for  men  not  to  be  spoiled  by 
luxury  !  " 

Bert.  "  If  you  arrive  at  four  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon you  '11  not  get  your  supper  before  nine  or  ten." 

Will.     "  Why  is  that  ?  " 

Bert.  "  They  get  nothing  ready  until  they  see  all 
their  guests,  so  that  they  may  serve  them  all  at  one 
time." 

Will.     "  They  are  trying  to  cut  it  close." 

Bert.  "  You  're  right,  they  are.  »  Sometimes  they  will 
crowd  into  that  sweat-box  eighty  or  ninety  persons,  foot- 
men and  horsemen,  merchants,  sailors,  carters,  farmers, 
boys,  women,  sick  and  well." 


230  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

WiLL.     "  Why,  that 's  a  regular  monastery  !  " 

Bert.  "  There  is  one  combing  his  hair  ;  another 
wiping  off  his  sweat,  another  pulling  off  his  cowhides  or 
his  riding-boots ;  another  smells  of  garlic.  In  short 
there  is  a  confusion  of  men  and  tongues  as  once  in  the 
tower  of  Babel.  But  if  they  see  a  foreigner  of  a  certain 
dignity  they  all  fix  their  eyes  upon  him,  staring  at  him 
as  if  he  were  some  new  kind  of  animal  brought  from 
Africa  ;  even  after  they  have  sat  down  at  table  they 
screw  their  necks  about  and  continue  their  gazing,  even 
forgetting  to  eat." 

Will.  "  At  Rome,  or  Paris,  or  Venice,  no  one  mar- 
vels at  anything." 

Bert.  "  Meanwhile  it  is  a  crime  to  ask  for  anything. 
When  the  evening  is  far  gone  and  there  is  no  prospect  of 
any  further  arrivals,  there  appears  an  old  servant,  with 
white  hair,  a  shaven  head,  a  crooked  face,  and  dirty 
clothes.  " 

Will.  *'  Such  a  fellow  ought  to  be  cupbearer  to  a 
Roman  cardinal  !  " 

Bert.  "  He  casts  his  eyes  about  and  counts  the 
guests,  and  the  more  he  finds  the  more  he  heats  up  the 
stove,  though  the  weather  be  boiling  hot.  For  in  Ger- 
many it  belongs  to  good  entertainment  to  set  everyone 
to  dripping  with  sweat,  and  if  anyone  unaccustomed  to 
this  steaming  opens  a  crack  of  a  window  to  save  himself 
from  suffocation,  he  hears  at  once  :  '  Shut  it  !  shut  it ! ' 
and  if  you  answer  :  *  I  can't  stand  it  ! '  you  hear  :  *  Go 
find  another  inn  then  !  '  " 

William  enlarges  ad  nauseam  on  the  dangers  of 
this  herding  of  men  together,  but  Bertulphus 
answers : 

"They  are  tough  people;  they  laugh  at  these  things 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  231 

and  take  no  thought  of  them.  .  .  .  Now  hear  the 
rest  of  the  story.  This  bearded  Ganymede  comes 
back  and  spreads  as  many  tables  as  are  enough  for  the 
guests — but,  ye  gods  !  not  with  linen  of  Miletus  ;  one 
would  say  with  the  canvas  of  old  sails.  To  each  table 
he  assigns  at  least  eight  guests.  They  who  know  the 
ways  of  the  country  drop  where  they  are  put ;  for  there 
is  no  distinction  of  rich  and  poor,  master  or  servant." 

Will.  "  This  is  that  ancient  equality  which  tyranny 
has  now  driven  from  the  world.  I  suppose  that 's  the 
way  Christ  lived  with  his  disciples  !  " 

Bert.  **  After  all  are  seated,  that  crooked  old  Gany- 
mede appears  again,  and  again  counts  his  company. 
Then  he  gives  each  one  a  wooden  bowl,  a  spoon  of  the 
same  metal,  and  a  glass  cup — some  time  afterward  some 
bread,  which  everyone  eats  up  to  pass  the  time  while  the 
soup  is  cooking  ;  and  so  they  sit  sometimes  the  space  of 
an  hour." 

Will.  "  Does  no  guest  meanwhile  ask  for  food  ?" 

Bert.  "  Not  one  who  knows  the  ways  of  the  country. 
At  last  they  bring  on  wine — good  God  !  what  a  taste  of 
smoke  !  The  sophists  ought  to  drink  it,  it  is  so  keen 
and  sharp.  If  any  guest,  even  offering  extra  money, 
asks  for  another  sort,  they  first  put  him  off,  but  look  at 
him  as  if  they  would  murder  him.  If  you  press  them 
they  answer — '  So  many  counts  and  marquises  have  put 
up  here  and  there  was  never  a  complaint  of  my  wine  ; 
if  you  don't  like  it,  get  you  to  another  hostelry.'  They 
think  their  own  nobles  are  the  only  men  in  the  world 
and  are  always  showing  you  their  coats  of  arms." 

So  the  banquet  moves  on  to  its  end,  through 
alternate  courses  of  meat  and  soup,  giving  Erasmus 
abundant  opportunity  for  gibes  at  his  despised  Ger- 


232  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

mans.  Could  any  good  thing  come  out  of  a  land 
where  people  washed  their  bed-linen  once  in  six 
months  ?  We  may  be  tolerably  sure  that  these 
early  impressions  of  Erasmus  were  not  without  their 
effect  upon  his  conception  of  the  meaning  of  the 
Reformation.  Indeed,  he  was  not  the  only  one 
who  was  inclined  to  reject  the  whole  movement  of 
Luther  from  the  start,  partly  for  the  reason  that  it 
came  from  the  reputed  coarse  and  drunken  folk  of 
Germany, 

Erasmus  remained  in  Basel  only  a  few  months. 
In  March,  151 5,  he  was  again  in  England.  The 
visit  at  Basel  was,  however,  of  lasting  import  to 
him  in  many  ways.  It  made  him  familiar  with  the 
place  which,  more  than  any  other,  was  to  be  his 
home  during  his  remaining  life.  He  found  himself 
honourably  treated,  the  climate  suited  him,  good 
wine  could  be  procured  without  too  great  difficulty, 
and  he  was  near  a  group  of  scholars  who  were  to  be 
among  his  most  efficient  helpers  in  all  his  future 
work.  Foremost  among  these  was  John  Froben, 
the  great  printer  and  publisher,  to  whom  we  owe 
many  of  the  very  finest  products  of  the  early  six- 
teenth century  press.  Froben  was  a  man  of  the 
Aldus  type,  a  scholar  himself  and  with  a  talent 
for  enlisting  scholars  in  his  service.  Two  pict- 
ures, one  from  the  brush  of  Holbein,  and  one 
from  the  pen  of  Erasmus,  have  given  us  a  clear  im- 
pression of  this  amiable  but  forceful  personality. 
Erasmus  wrote  after  his  death  ' : 

"  The  loss  of  my  own  brother  I  bore  with  great  equa- 

*iii.,  1053-E. 


per    6ra.*.  Kfit. 
Orte    vvreV     ^ot•^     nc^cv*    ftttua     m^xx,        , 

l\«tt\U-V*-,  CJfVVAVli^      ■OCtttTM/m     'VtCOVtUVM^WtA    ><>«)»oirM/m 

per   no^   vw     tcifr»?,^'mA    porewvU^  crit. 

5oLu/m  woYi  c€p'<j».bvt  ob    />ert   stti   ilfctf/sMAnj  $«d 
VA  wuJiiuf    .Y*wl-iu?  Or     prxA^jtrWVwr. 

'         '  £r    4C/frfrapAaSrtunti. 

PORTRAIT  OF  FROBEN  BY  HOLBEIN.     EPITAPH  BY  ERASMUS— FACSIMILE 
OF   HANDWRITING. 

FROM  KNIGHT'S  "  LIFE  OF  ERASMUS." 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  233 

nimity  ;  but  I  cannot  overcome  my  longing  for  Froben,  I 
do  not  rebel  at  my  grief,  reasonable  as  it  is,  but  I  am 
pained  that  it  should  be  so  great  and  so  lasting.  As  it  was 
not  merely  affection  which  bound  me  to  him  in  life,  so  it  is 
not  merely  that  I  miss  him  now  that  he  is  gone.  For  I 
loved  him  more  on  account  of  the  liberal  studies  which 
he  seemed  given  us  by  Providence  to  adorn  and  to  pro- 
mote, than  on  account  of  his  kindness  to  me  and  his 
genial  manners.  Who  would  not  love  such  a  nature? 
He  was  to  his  friend  just  a  friend,  so  simple  and  so  sin- 
cere that  even  if  he  had  wished  to  pretend  or  to  conceal 
anything  he  could  not  do  it,  so  repugnant  was  it  to  his 
nature  ;  so  ready  and  eager  to  help  everyone  that  he 
was  glad  to  be  of  service  even  to  the  unworthy,  so  that 
he  was  a  natural  and  welcome  prey  to  thieves  and  swind- 
lers. He  was  as  pleased  to  get  back  money  from  a 
thief  or  from  bad  debtors  as  others  are  with  unexpected 
fortune. 

"  He  was  of  such  incorruptible  honour  that  never  did 
anyone  deserve  better  the  saying  *  He  is  a  man  you 
could  throw  dice  with  in  the  dark,*  and,  incapable  of 
fraud  himself,  he  could  never  suspect  it  in  others  though 
he  was  often  deceived.  What  the  disease  of  envy  was 
he  could  no  more  comprehend  than  a  man  born  blind 
can  understand  colour.  Even  serious  offences,  he  par- 
doned before  he  asked  who  had  committed  them.  He 
could  never  remember  an  injury,  nor  forget  even  the 
smallest  service.  And  here,  in  my  judgment,  he  was 
better  than  was  fitting  for  the  wise  father  of  a  family.  I 
used  to  warn  him  sometimes  that  he  should  treat  his 
sincere  friends  becomingly,  but  that  while  he  used  gentle 
language  towards  impostors  he  should  protect  himself 
and  not  at  the  same  time  get  cheated  and  laughed  at. 
He  would  smile  gently,  but  I  told  my  tale  to  deaf  ears. 


234  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

The  frankness  of  his  nature  was  too  much  for  all  warn- 
ings. And  as  for  me,  what  plots  did  he  not  invent,  what 
excuses  did  he  not  hunt  up  to  force  some  gift  upon  me  ? 
I  never  saw  him  happier  than  when  he  had  succeeded 
by  artifice  or  persuasion  in  getting  me  to  accept  some- 
thing. Against  the  wiles  of  the  man  I  had  need  of  the 
utmost  caution,  nor  did  I  ever  need  my  skill  in  rhetoric 
more  than  in  thinking  up  excuses  to  refuse  without  of- 
fending my  friend  ;  for  I  could  not  bear  to  see  him  sad. 
[One  feels  that  Erasmus'  rhetoric  was  running  away 
with  him  a  little  at  this  point.]  If  by  chance  my  serv- 
ants had  bought  cloth  for  my  clothes,  he  would  find  it 
out  and  pay  the  bill  before  I  suspected  it  ;  and  no  en- 
treaties of  mine  could  make  him  take  payment  for  it. 
So  it  was  if  I  wanted  to  save  him  from  loss  ;  I  had  to 
make  pretences  and  there  was  such  a  bargaining  ;  quite 
different  from  the  usual  course,  where  one  tries  to  get 
as  much  as  possible  and  the  other  to  give  as  little  as 
possible.  I  could  never  bring  it  to  pass  that  he  should 
give  me  nothing  ;  but  that  I  made  a  most  moderate  use 
of  his  kindness,  all  his  household  will  bear  me  witness. 
Whatever  work  I  did  for  him  I  did  for  love  of  learning. 
Since  he  seemed  born  to  honour,  to  promote,  and  to  em- 
bellish learning,  and  spared  no  labour  or  care,  thinking 
it  reward  enough  if  a  good  author  were  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  public  in  worthy  form,  how  could  I  prey 
upon  a  man  like  this  ? 

"  Sometimes  when  he  showed  to  me  and  other  friends 
the  first  pages  of  some  great  author,  how  he  was  trans- 
ported with  joy  !  how  his  face  glowed  !  what  triumph- 
ant words  !  You  would  say  that  he  had  already  taken  in 
the  profits  of  the  whole  work  in  fullest  measure  and  was 
expecting  no  other  return.  I  am  not  exalting  Froben 
by  decrying  others  ;  but  it  is  notorious  what  incorrect  and 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  235 

inelegant  editions  some  publishers  have  sent  us  even 
from  Venice  and  from  Rome.  From  his  office,  within 
a  few  years  what  volumes  have  gone  forth,  and  in  what 
noble  form  !  And  he  has  always  kept  his  house  free 
from  books  of  controversy,  by  which  others  have  gained 
great  profit,  lest  the  cause  of  good  literature  and  learn- 
ing should  be  defiled  by  any  personal  hostilities.  .  .  . 
Surely  it  will  be  an  act  of  gratitude  for  us  all  to  pray  for 
the  welfare  of  the  departed,  to  celebrate  his  memory  by 
due  praises,  and  to  lend  our  favour  to  the  house  of  Froben, 
which  is  not  to  be  closed  by  the  death  of  its  master,  but 
will  ever  strive  to  its  utmost  to  carry  forward  what  he 
has  begun  to  still  greater  and  better  things." 

This  charming  companion  picture  to  the  account 
of  the  Aldine  establishment  in  Venice  is  probably 
in  the  main  correct.  It  suggests  the  relation  be- 
tween publisher  and  author,  which  we  have  already 
tried  without  entire  success  to  make  clear.  Ap- 
parently, on  his  own  statement,  Erasmus  was  in  a 
way  an  employee  of  Froben.  The  anxiety  which 
he  betrays  not  to  seem  to  take  pay  from  the  pub- 
lisher, was  plainly  the  same  feeling  which  made  him 
reject  with  such  scorn  the  charge  of  Scaliger,  that 
he  had  been  in  Aldus's  employ.  He  was  not 
ashamed  of  his  work,  any  more  than  a  European 
physician  of  a  generation  ago  was  ashamed  of  his ; 
but  he  desired  to  have  this  work  viewed  as  a  labour 
of  love,  and  any  reward — which,  of  course,  he  could 
not  entirely  do  without — was  to  be  considered  as  a 
gift  freely  offered,  and  to  be  accepted  only  under  a 
kind  of  protest. 

Besides  Froben  himself,  we  find  Erasmus  making 


236  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

friends  with  the  brothers  Amerbach,  sons  of  Froben's 
predecessor  in  the  business.  Writing  to  Pope  Leo 
X.,'  to  ask  his  acceptance  of  the  dedication  to  the 
works  of  Jerome,  Erasmus  enumerates  his  co- 
labourers  in  the  great  undertaking: 

"  The  weightiest  contribution  was  that  of  the  brothers 
Amerbach,  at  whose  expense  and  by  whose  labours,  in 
common  with  those  of  Froben,  the  work  was  mainly 
carried  through.  The  Amerbach  family  was,  as  it  were, 
pointed  out  by  the  fates,  that  Jerome  might  live  again 
through  their  exertions.  The  excellent  father  had  his 
three  sons  educated  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew,  for 
this  very  purpose.  Upon  his  death  he  commended  the 
work  to  his  children  as  an  inheritance,  devoting  to  its 
accomplishment  all  his  resources.  And  these  admirable 
youths  entering  upon  the  fair  field  committed  to  them 
by  an  admirable  father,  are  labouring  diligently  therein, 
and  have  so  divided  the  Jerome  with  me  that  they  are 
doing  everything  except  the  epistles." 

It  would  appear,  then,  that  Erasmus'  share  in 
the  Froben  Jerome  was  the  personal  responsibility 
for  the  epistles,  the  writing  of  a  dedication  which 
was,  after  all,  not  addressed  to  Pope  Leo,  but  to 
Archbishop  Warham,  and  the  use  of  his  name  as  a 
general  recommendation  of  the  whole.  Perhaps 
also  he  exercised  a  general  supervision  over  the 
work  of  the  others. 

It  was  here  also,  probably,  that  Erasmus  had  his 
first  personal  relations  with  John  Reuchlin,  a  man 
after  his  own  heart,  but  already  too  much  involved 

Mii.',  154-C. 


I 


BONIFACE  AMERBACH  OF  BASEL. 

FROM    "  ERASMI    OPERA,"    PUBUSHED   AT    LEYDEN,    1703. 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  237 

in  active  controversy  with  established  powers  to 
make  him  altogether  a  safe  investment  for  a  prudent 
scholar  who  could  see  something  worth  having  on 
both  sides  of  every  question.  Erasmus  speaks  of 
him  to  Leo  '  as 

"  that  illustrious  man,  almost  equally  skilled  in  Latin, 
Greek,  and  Hebrew,  and  so  well  versed  in  every  sort  of 
learning  that  he  can  hold  his  own  with  the  best.  Where- 
fore all  Germany  looks  up  to  him  and  reveres  him  as  the 
phenix  and  the  chief  glory  of  the  nation." 

In  the  letters  to  Cardinals  Grimani  and  Raphael, 
dated  just  a  month  earlier  than  this  to  Leo,  Erasmus 
speaks  much  more  heartily  of  Reuchlin.  He  has 
been  expressing  his  determination  to  devote  the  re- 
mainder of  his  days  to  what  our  fathers  used  to  call 
"  curious  learning,"  unless  envy,  "  more  fatal  than 
any  serpent,"  shall  prevent," 

"  as  I  have  lately  seen  with  the  utmost  regret  in  the  case 
of  that  great  man  John  Reuchlin.  For  it  was  fitting 
and  it  was  time  that  this  man  of  reverend  years  should 
enjoy  his  noble  studies  and  should  be  reaping  the  hap- 
piest harvest  from  the  faithful  planting  of  his  youthful 
labours.  A  man  skilled  in  so  many  tongues,  and  in  so 
many  kinds  of  learning,  ought  to  have  been  able,  in  this 
autumn  of  his  days,  to  pour  forth  into  all  the  world  the 
rich  products  of  his  genius.  He  ought  to  have  been 
spurred  on  by  praise,  called  out  by  rewards,  fired  by 
others'  zeal.  And  I  hear  that  men  have  arisen — I  know 
not  who  they  are — who,  unable  of  themselves  to  bring 
anything  great  to  pass,  are    seeking  for  reputation  by 

'iii.',  154-B.  'iii.',  144-B. 


238  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

the  basest  of  methods.  Immortal  God  !  what  a  tumult 
they  have  stirred  up  and  on  what  frivolous  grounds ! 
From  a  little  book,  a  mere  letter,  which  he  neither  pub- 
lished nor  wished  to  have  published,  such  a  storm  has 
arisen  !  Who  would  ever  have  known  that  he  wrote  this 
letter  if  those  fellows  had  not  published  it  to  the  world  ? 
"  How  much  better  it  would  have  served  the  cause  of 
peace,  supposing  he  had  erred  in  any  way, — as  all  men 
do  err, — to  conceal  this,  or  frankly  interpret  it,  or  surely 
to  pardon  it  out  of  consideration  for  the  distinguished 
virtues  of  the  man.  I  am  not  saying  this  because  I 
have  found  any  errors  in  him  ;  that  is  for  others  to  de- 
cide ;  but  this  I  will  say,  that  if  anyone  after  the  same 
malicious  fashion, — and  as  the  Greeks  say,  anoro^xco?, 
should  explore  the  books  of  St.  Jerome,  he  would  find 
many  a  thing  very  widely  differing  from  the  views  of  our 
theologians.  To  what  end  then  was  it  that  a  man  vener- 
able in  years  and  in  letters  should  for  an  affair  of  no  mo- 
ment, be  dragged  into  turmoils  of  this  sort,  in  which  he  has 
now,  I  believe,  lost  seven  years.  Would  that  he  might 
have  spent  this  labour  and  this  time  in  furthering  "the 
cause  of  honest  study  !  Instead  of  this,  he,  a  man 
worthy  of  all  reward,  is  involved  in  vexing  quarrels  to 
the  great  grief  and  anger  of  all  learned  men,  and  indeed 
of  all  Germany.  And  yet  all  have  hopes  that  through 
your  assistance,  so  distinguished  a  man  may  be  restored 
to  learning  and  to  the  world." 

This  appeal  to  Rome  in  behalf  of  Reuchlin  was 
doubtless  a  piece  of  pure  friendly  service  on  Eras- 
mus' part.  So  far  the  cause  of  Reuchlin  was  the 
cause  of  sound  learning,  pure  and  simple,  and  ap- 
pealed therefore  powerfully  to  all  Erasmus'  sym- 
pathies.    Later,  when  the  names  of  Reuchlin  and 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  239 

Luther  came  to  be  joined  together  as  of  allies  in  one 
great  movement,  then  we  shall  find  Erasmus  hes- 
itating and  even  declaring  himself  wholly  ignorant 
of  the  real  questions  in  dispute.  Already,  we  notice, 
he  carefully  avoids  the  question  whether  Reuchlin 
may  have  erred  in  any  way — that  was  not  his  affair. 

One  other  of  Erasmus'  early  Basel  acquaintances 
was  Beatus  Rhenanus,  of  Schlettstadt,  in  Alsatia. 
Erasmus  mentions  him  to  Pope  Leo  as  "  a  young 
man  of  rare  learning  and  the  keenest  critical  scent." 

Precisely  what  was  accomplished  at  Basel  during 
the  eight  months  or  so  of  Erasmus*  first  visit  we 
cannot  say.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  period  of  be- 
ginnings.    He  writes  to  Ammonius  in  October: 

"  I  was  getting  on  finely  here  until  they  began  to  heat 
up  their  stoves.  Jerome  is  in  progress.  They  have  already 
begun  on  the  New  Testament.  I  cannot  stay  on  account 
of  the  intolerable  stench  of  the  stoves,  and  I  cannot 
leave  on  account  of  the  work  that  is  begun  and  which 
cannot  possibly  be  carried  through  without  me.  .  .  . 
If  my  health  permits,  I  shall  stay  here  until  Christmas  ; 
if  not,  I  shall  either  return  to  Brabant  or  go  straight  to 
Rome." 

Evidently,  in  spite  of  congenial  work,  carried  on 
under  the  most  favourable  conditions,  the  restless 
creature  was  already  uneasy  and  looking  about  him 
for  chances,  which  he  was  quite  sure  not  to  improve. 
If  we  could  take  him  at  his  word  a  hot  room  was  of 
more  account  in  his  plans  than  the  proper  comple- 
tion of  his  work.  Happily  his  deeds  speak  loudly 
in  his  own  defence  and  we  know  by  the  results  that 


240  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

he  must  have  been  very  busy  during  his  first  Basel 
days. 

In  March,  15 15,  the  dates  of  his  letters  show  him 
again  in  England,  for  what  purpose  we  do  not  know. 
His  connection  with  Cambridge  was  broken,  his 
pension  was  secured,  he  was  not,  so  far  as  we  know, 
seeking  any  further  employment.  Possibly  he  may 
have  been  re-examining  manuscripts  for  his  New 
Testament.  It  is  fairly  certain  that  he  was  on  the 
continent  again  by  the  early  summer. 

If  we  follow,  even  with  allowance  for  palpable 
errors,  the  dating  of  Erasmus'  letters  we  should 
have  to  conclude  that  he  was  in  England  for  a  while 
in  1 5 16,  and  again  in  15 17.  Meanwhile  he  would 
have  been  twice  in  Basel  and  have  spent  more  or  less 
time  at  Louvain,  Brussels,  and  elsewhere.  Mr. 
Drummond  accepts  this  result,  but,  even  with  Eras- 
mus' restless  temper,  it  seems  hardly  possible  that 
he  could  have  accomplished  the  work  he  did,  with 
the  continual  interruptions  inevitable  to  such  fre- 
quent and  prolonged  journeyings.  On  the  other 
hand  we  find  it  brought  up  as  a  charge  against  him 
by  his  critics  that  he  wasted  his  time  in  aimless 
wanderings.  He  defends  himself  by  declaring  that 
he  never  undertook  a  journey  without  good  and 
sufficient  reasons  connected  with  the  work  of  his  life. 

We  shall  probably  be  safe  in  thinking  that  Eras- 
mus had  a  great  gift  of  settling  promptly  to  work 
and  putting  other  things  out  of  his  mind  while  the 
spell  of  work  was  on  him,  the  marvellous  gift  of 
concentration  which  has  made  more  reputations 
than  the  gift  of  genius.     Still,  if  we  consider  the 


isi8]  Basel  and  Louvain  241 

peculiar  demands  of  the  work  of  editing  texts,  the 
necessity  of  an  apparatus  of  books,  the  accumulation 
of  material,  all  of  which  ought  to  be  at  hand  for 
correction  and  comparison,  the  disadvantages  of 
frequent  change  become  more  obvious  and  Eras- 
mus' wanderings  are  so  much  the  more  inexplicable. 

His  correspondence  during  these  three  years,  from 
1515  to  1 5 18,  is  full  of  references  to  the  question  of 
a  permanent  residence.  To  judge  from  these  one 
would  suppose  him  to  be  firmly  fixed  in  the  notion 
of  a  settlement  for  life.  Now  it  is  England,  now 
Flanders,  now  Basel,  now  Paris,  with  ever  and  anon 
the  distant  thought  of  Italy  rising  in  the  background 
as  a  possibility.  We  should  not  be  going  far  wrong 
if  we  were  to  describe  this  period  as  that  in  which 
Erasmus  was  enjoying  to  the  full  a  newly  acquired 
sense  of  power  and  value.  Not  until  after  the  ap- 
pearance of  his  New  Testament  in  15 16  could  he 
feel  that  he  had  demonstrated  to  the  world  at  once 
the  grasp  of  his  scholarship  and  the  deep  serious- 
ness of  his  purpose.  It  was  probably  true  then,  as 
it  may  not  have  been  quite  true  when  he  was  bid- 
ding on  himself  to  Servatius  two  years  before,  that 
any  country  in  Europe  would  be  glad  to  have  him, 
and  almost  on  his  own  terms.  He  liked  to  feel 
himself  a  citizen  of  the  world  and  was  tasting  the 
joys  of  a  universal  popularity,  too  great  to  last  for 
ever. 

Here  and  there  we  get  glimpses  of  his  way  of  life, 
which  indicate  a  very  considerable  degree  of  pro- 
sperity.    A  letter '   written  to  young   Beatus  and 

'iii.',  371-C. 
16 


242  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

dated  at  Lou  vain  in  the  autumn   of  1518  gives  a 
detailed  account  of  his  journey  thither  from  Basel. 

"  I  left  Basel,"  he  says,  "  in  a  languid  and  enervated 
condition,  like  a  man  who  has  not  yet  got  on  good  terms 
with  out-of-doors,  so  long  had  I  been  shut  up  in  the 
house,  and  yet  busied  with  incessant  work.  [This  refers 
to  a  long  illness  which  had  kept  him  indoors  through 
the  summer.]  The  sail  was  not  unpleasant,  only  that 
towards  noon  the  heat  of  the  sun  was  rather  oppressive. 
We  dined  at  Breisach, — the  worst  kind  of  a  dinner. 
The  stench  was  enough  to  kill  you  and  the  flies  worse 
than  the  stench.    .    .    . 

"  Towards  night  we  were  turned  out  into  a  chilly  town, 
whose  name  I  did  n't  care  to  know,  nor  if  I  knew  it, 
should  I  care  to  speak  it.  There  I  was  just  about  killed." 

Here  follows  a  description,  almost  the  same  as  that 
in  the  Diversoria,  of  the  horrors  of  a  German  inn, 
always  with  the  unlucky  stove  as  the  central  figure. 

"  In  the  morning  we  were  routed  out  of  bed  by  the 
shouts  of  the  sailors  and  I  went  on  board  ship  without 
supper  and  without  sleep.  We  reached  Strassburg  at 
about  nine  o'clock  in  the  forenoon  and  were  pretty  well 
entertained  there,  especially  as  Schtirer  furnished  the 
wine.  A  part  of  the  fraternity  was  on  hand  and  soon 
they  all  came  to  welcome  us.  .  .  .  Thence  we  went  on 
to  Speier  by  horse  and  saw  never  a  shadow  of  a  soldier 
though  dreadful  rumours  were  abroad.  My  English  horse 
was  just  about  used  up  and  scarcely  got  to  Speier.  That 
scoundrel  of  a  blacksmith  had  so  abused  him  that  both  his 
ears  were  burned  with  a  hot  iron.  At  Speier  I  took  myself 
quietly  out  of  the  inn  and  went  to  my  friend  Maternus 


I5I81  Basel  and  Louvain  243 

near  by.  There  the  dean,  a  man  of  learning  and  culture, 
entertained  me  for  two  days  with  great  kindness.  We 
met  there  by  chance  Hermann  Busch.  Thence  we  jour- 
neyed by  carriage  to  Worms  and  Mainz.  There  hap- 
pened into  the  same  carriage  a  certain  Ulrich,  a  secretary 
of  the  emperor,  whose  surname  was  Farnbul — as  who 
should  say,  '  Fern-Hill.'  He  paid  me  the  greatest  atten- 
tion on  the  journey  and  at  Mainz  would  not  suffer  me 
to  go  to  the  common  inn,  but  took  me  to  the  house  of  a 
certain  canon  and  saw  me  to  the  boat  when  I  started 
off.  The  weather  was  very  agreeable  and  the  voyage 
well  enough  only  that  the  sailors  tried  to  make  it  longer 
than  was  necessary,  and  the  smell  of  the  horses  was 
unpleasant.     .     . 

"  At  Boppard  I  was  walking  on  the  river-bank  while 
they  were  looking  up  a  boat  and  someone  who  knew 
me  gave  my  name  to  the  toll-collector.  This  man's 
name  was  Christopher  and,  I  believe,  Cinicampius,  or 
in  the  vulgar  tongue,  Eschenfeld.  It  was  marvellous 
how  the  fellow  jumped  for  joy.  He  dragged  me  to  his 
house  and  there  on  a  little  table,  among  his  toll-receipts, 
lay  the  writings  of  Erasmus.  He  cries  out  that  he  is  a 
blessed  man,  calls  his  wife,  his  children,  and  all  his 
friends.  To  the  clamorous  boatmen  he  sends  two  jugs 
of  wine  and  when  they  burst  out  into  new  clamours  he 
sends  some  more,  and  promises  that  on  their  return  he  will 
remit  the  toll  because  they  have  brought  him  so  great  a 
guest.  From  here  I  was  escorted  as  far  as  Coblenz  by 
John  Flaminius,  head  of  a  convent  of  women  there,  a 
man  of  angelic  purity,  of  sound  and  sober  judgment,  and 
of  unusual  learning.  At  Coblenz  Matthias,  a  chaplain  of 
the  bishop,  took  me  to  his  house, — a  young  man,  but 
of  settled  ways,  of  accurate  Latin  learning,  and  thoroughly 
trained  in  the  law  as  well.     There  we  had  a  merry  supper. 


244  Desiderius  Erasmus  U515- 

At  Bonn  the  canon  [one  of  his  fellow-travellers]  left 
us,  in  order  to  avoid  the  city  of  Cologne,  which  I  also 
desired  to  avoid.  My  servant  had,  however,  gone 
ahead  thither  with  the  horses  ;  there  was  no  safe  person 
on  the  boat  whom  I  could  send  after  him,  and  I  had  no 
confidence  in  the  sailors.  On  Sunday  morning  before 
six  o'clock,  in  dismal  weather,  I  arrived  at  Cologne, 
went  to  an  hotel,  gave  orders  to  the  servants  to  get  a 
two-horse  carriage,  and  called  for  breakfast  at  ten.  I 
went  to  mass,  but  no  breakfast  !  Nothing  was  done 
about  the  carriage.  I  tried  to  get  a  horse,  for  mine  were 
of  no  use, — no  result.  I  saw  what  was  up  ;  they  were 
trying  to  keep  me  there.  At  once  I  ordered  my  horses 
to  be  got  ready,  packed  one  portmanteau  and  gave  over 
the  other  to  the  innkeeper  ;  then  on  my  lame  nag  I  hurried 
off  to  the  Count  of  Neuenaar,  a  ride  of  five  hours.  He 
was  staying  at  Bedburium  and  I  spent  five  days  with  him 
so  pleasantly  and  quietly  that  I  got  through  a  good  part 
of  my  revision  there  ;  for  I  had  brought  with  me  a  part 
of  the  New  Testament." 

From  this  point  the  real  troubles  of  the  journey 
began.  Erasmus  had  suffered  from  boils  at  Basel 
and  his  two  days  of  riding  from  Strassburg  to  Speier 
had  aggravated  them.  Now  he  caught  a  heavy  cold 
by  foolish^exposure  to  wind  and  rain  in  an  open  car- 
riage. "[Some  Jupiter  or  evil  genius  robbed  me, 
not  of  half  my  senses  as  Hesiod  says,  but  of  the 
whole;  for  one  half  he  had  stolen  when  I  ventured 
into  Cologne.")  The  story  is  too  long  for  our  pur- 
pose and  quite  too  minute  for  our  taste,  though  as 
a  study  in  pathological  history  it  might  interest  a 
modern  physician.     The  poor  man's  digestion  was 


1518]  Basel  and  Louvain  245 

completely  upset ;  his  boils  troubled  him  so  that  he 
did  not  know  whether  riding  or  driving  was  the 
worse.  Finally,  in  the  last  stage,  he  found  a  four- 
horse  carriage  going  to  Louvain,  got  a  place  in  it, 
and  arrived  there  more  dead  than  alive.  Of  course 
he  was  afraid  of  the  plague,  and,  indeed,  the  first 
physician  summoned  quietly  told  the  people  of  the 
house  that  he  had  the  plague,  promised  to  send  a 
poultice,  but  came  near  him  no  more.  Others  were 
called  and  gave  various  opinions.  A  Jew  doctor 
said  he  only  wished  he  had  as  sound  a  body.  One 
did  one  thing  and  one  another  until  finally,  "  dis- 
gusted with  doctors  I  commend  myself  to  Christ 
the  Great  Physician."  After  this  sensible  con- 
clusion, he  began  to  grow  better,  was  soon  taking 
food,  and  at  once  began  to  work  on  his  New  Testa- 
ment proofs.  He  had  warned  his  friends  not  to 
come  to  see  him,  but  they  came  and  sat  with  him 
and  so  made  the  four  weeks  of  his  imprisonment 
pass  quite  happily. 

This  account  of  the  journey  from  Basel  to  Lou- 
vain indicates  with  tolerable  distinctness  that  Eras- 
mus commanded  considerable  resources.  He  had 
more  than  one  horse  and  at  least  one  servant.  The 
horses  were  shipped  on  the  boat  whenever  he  trav- 
elled by  water,  and  apparently  this  was  regarded 
as  the  safer  way  to  travel.  He  speaks  with  espe- 
cial relief  of  meeting  no  soldiers  on  the  land  jour- 
ney. Carriages  he  seems  to  have  hired ;  but  he 
twice  uses  expressions  which  go  to  show  that  such 
carriages  were  not  exclusively  for  the  use  of  the 
hirer.     He  says  that  Ulrich  Farnbul  came  by  chance 


246  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

into  the  same  carriage  with  him,  and  again  on  the  last 
stage  he  himself  gets  into  a  carriage  going  to  Lou- 
vain.  It  is  too  early  to  think  of  regular  public  con- 
veyance, but  apparently  a  traveller  did  not  object  to 
sharing  his  carriage  and  expense  with  another.  Our 
interest  is  to  observe  that  such  travelling  must  have 
implied  a  large  outlay  and  must  have  gone  far 
to  account  for  Erasmus'  persistent  complaints  of 
poverty. 

From  Louvain  Erasmus  wrote  back  a  semi- 
humorous  little  letter  to  his  friend,  the  learned 
toll-gatherer  of  Boppard ' : 

"  What  could  have  been  more  unexpected  than  that  I 
should  find  at  Boppard  an  Eschenfeld,  a  student  of  my 
works  ? — a  publican  devoted  to  the  Muses  and  to  liberal 
learning !  Christ  made  it  a  reproach  to  the  Pharisees 
that  harlots  and  publicans  should  go  before  them  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  ;  tell  me,  is  it  not  equally  shameful 
that  priests  and  monks  should  be  living  for  luxury  and 
the  service  of  their  bellies,  while  publicans  are  embrac- 
ing the  cause  of  liberal  learning  ?  They  are  consecrating 
themselves  wholly  to  guzzling,  while  Eschenfeld  divides 
himself  between  the  Kaiser  and  his  studies  !  You  showed 
plainly  enough  what  opinion  you  had  formed  of  me  ;  and 
I  shall  have  done  well,  if  the  sight  of  me  has  not  rubbed 
off  a  little  of  it. 

"  But,  alack !  alack  !  that  jolly  red  wine  of  yours 
mightily  tickled  our  boatman's  wife,  a  full-breasted  and 
bibulous  female  ;  she  would  n't  share  a  drop  of  it, 
though  they  kept  calling  for  some.  She  drank  all  she 
wanted  and  then  what  a  row  !     She  nearly  slew  a  maid- 

'iii.',  353-D. 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  247 

servant  with  a  mighty  ladle  and  we  could  hardly  stop 
the  fight.  Then  when  she  got  on  board  she  went  for 
her  husband,  and  came  near  throwing  him  into  the 
Rhine.     There  you  see  the  power  of  your  wine." 

It  is  worth  noticing  that  Erasmus  represents  his 
settlement  at  Louvain  as  the  result  of  a  freak  on  the 
part  of  those  evil  fates  of  which  he  liked  to  fancy 
himself  the  especial  victim.  To  make  his  climax 
more  effective  he  pictures  the  joys  of  meeting  his 
Louvain  friends: 

"  What  dinners  !  what  a  welcome  !  what  talks  I  was 
promising  myself !  I  had  decided,  if  the  autumn  should 
be  a  pleasant  one,  to  go  over  to  England  and  to  accept 
what  the  king  has  so  many  times  offered  me — but  oh! 
deceitful  hopes  of  mortal  men  — etc  !  " 

He  has  an  illness  of  a  few  weeks,  during  most  of 
which  time  he  is  steadily  at  work,  and  then  he  goes 
quietly  back  to  his  lodgings  in  the  University  and 
we  hear  no  more  of  England.  We  know  of  no  re- 
newed offers  from  King  Henry,  nor  indeed,  so  far, 
of  any  direct  offers  from  him  whatever. 

While  Erasmus  was  at  Basel,  he  was,  so  he  tells 
us,  invited  by  Duke  Ernest  of  Bavaria  to  come  to 
his  university  at  Ingolstadt.  He  speaks  of  this  in 
a  letter  to  the  bishop  of  Rochester,  as  one  among 
the  numerous  indications  of  the  favour  with  which 
the  first  edition  of  the  New  Testament  had  been  re- 
ceived. He  had  so  many  offers  that  he  could  not 
remember  them.  "  Some  bishop  in  Germany  whose 
name  I  have  forgotten  "  wanted  him  for  his  uni- 
versity.    He   knows   he   is  unworthy  of   all  these 


248  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

honours,  but  is  pleased  to  find  that  all  his  pains 
have  earned  the  approval  of  good  men.  "  Many 
are  now  reading  the  sacred  Scriptures  who  confess 
that  they  would  never  have  read  them  otherwise, 
and  many  persons  everywhere  are  beginning  to 
study  Greek." 

In  a  letter'  to  Ammonius  from  Brussels  in  15 16 
Erasmus  tells  of  an  offer  of  a  bishopric  in  Sicily : 

"  Do  you  want  to  laugh  ?  When  I  got  back  to  Brus- 
sels, I  went  to  call  on  my  Maecenas,  the  chancellor 
[Selvagius].  He  turned  to  the  councillors  who  were 
standing  about  and  said  :  '  This  man  does  n't  know  yet 
what  a  great  man  he  is.'  Then  to  me  :  *  The  Prince  is 
trying  to  make  you  a  bishop  and  had  already  given  you 
a  very  desirable  see  in  Sicily.  But  then  he  discovered 
that  this  see  was  on  the  list  of  those  which  are  called 
"  reserved,"  and  has  written  to  the  pope  to  get  his  ap- 
proval for  you.'  When  I  heard  this,  I  could  not  help 
laughing  ;  yet  I  am  glad  to  know  the  good  feeling  of  the 
king  towards  me— or  rather  of  the  chancellor,  who,  in 
this  matter,  is  the  king  himself." 

Somewhat  less  apocryphal  than  these  stories  is 
the  report  of  an  offer  from  King  Francis  I.  of  France. 
It  comes  to  us  in  a  letter  written  by  the  French 
scholar,  William  Budaeus,  to  Erasmus  while  he  was 
in  the  Low  Countries.  Budaeus  says  that  William 
Parvus  (Guillaume  Petit),  an  ecclesiastic  who  stood 
very  near  the  king,  had  told  him  that  one  day  in 
the  course  of  a  conversation  about  literary  men,  the 
king  had  expressed  his  determination ' 

'  iii.',  137-D.     Leclerc's  date,  1514,  is  probably  incorrect, 
'iii.',  1 69- A. 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  249 

"  to  gather  the  choicest  spirits  into  his  kingdom  by  the 
most  ample  rewards  and  to  found  in  France  a  seminary, 
if  I  may  so  call  it,  of  scholars.  Parvus  had  long  been 
watching  for  such  an  opportunity,  being  not  merely  a 
supporter  of  all  learning,  but  also  a  special  admirer  of 
yours,  and  said  that  in  his  opinion  Erasmus  ought  to  be 
invited  the  very  first  one,  and  that  this  could  most 
properly  be  done  by  Budaeus  .  .  .  and  finally,  that  the 
king,  moved  by  some  noble  impulse,  was  brought  to  the 
point  of  saying  that  this  offer  should  be  made  to  you  by 
me  in  his  name  :  that  if  you  could  be  persuaded  to  come 
here  to  live  and  devote  yourself  to  literary  work  here  as 
you  are  wont  to  do  over  there,  he  would  promise  to  give 
you  a  living  worth  a  thousand  francs  and  more.  Now  you 
understand  that  my  influence  comes  in  only  so  far  as 
I  assume  the  part  of  a  mediator,  not  of  a  sponsor,  and 
simply  pass  on  to  you  in  good  faith  what  I  have  heard 
from  Parvus." 

Budaeus  then  goes  on  to  say  that  he  has  little  to 
do  with  court  affairs,  but  that  if  Erasmus  likes  it, 
he  may  well  promise  himself  a  fine  position  in  Paris. 

"  Immortal  gods  !  what  an  honour  for  you  !  what  a 
splendid  fortune  in  the  judgment  of  all  learned  men,  to 
be  summoned  into  a  distant  land  by  the  greatest  and 
most  illustrious  of  kings  on  the  sole  recommendation 
of  your  learning  !  ...  As  far  as  one  can  guess,  he 
desires  to  be  the  founder  of  a  splendid  institution,  so 
that  in  the  future,  quite  otherwise  than  in  the  past, 
liberal  learning  may  seem  to  be  a  thing  of  profit." 

Lest  Erasmus  should  fancy  this  wish  of  the  king 
to  be  "  a  whim,  rather  than  a  carefully  considered 


250  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

and  settled  judgment,"  he  refers  to  the  very  favour- 
able opinion  of  Erasmus  held  by  Stephen  Poncher, 
bishop  of  Paris,  and  quotes  him  as  saying  that  the 
king  had  at  heart  the  cause  of  elegant  learning  and 
had  conversed  with  him  on  the  subject  of  bringing 
together  men  eminent  in  scholarship. 

"  I  said  to  him  at  the  time,  that  you  might  be  called 
into  France  with  an  honourable  provision  and  promised 
that  I  would  take  it  upon  myself  and  bring  it  to  pass.  I 
said  that  you  had  studied  in  Paris  and  knew  France  as 
well  as  the  place  of  your  birth.  I  think  he  will  be 
most  favourable  to  you.  ...  I  expect  that  William 
Cop,  the  king's  physician,  a  man  learned  in  both  tongues, 
a  friend  and  well-wisher  of  yours,  will  write  to  you  about 
this  and,  others  perhaps  by  the  king's  order  ;  or  even 
the  king  himself." 

Cop  did  write,  in  contrast  with  the  intolerable 
verbosity  of  Budaeus,  a  very  brief  note,  in  which  he 
says  that  the  king,  persuaded  by  Parvus  and  others, 
had  ordered  him  to  write  and  sound  Erasmus  as  to 
the  conditions  under  which  he  would  be  willing  to 
come  to  Paris. 

That  seems  to  have  been  the  whole  story  of  Eras- 
mus' "  call  "  to  Paris:  a  report  by  one  man  of  a 
conversation  with  others,  moderate  expressions  of 
good  will  on  the  part  of  the  Parisian  scholars,  but 
hardly  a  definite  promise  of  anything.  At  best,  the 
proposal  was  that  he  should  take  a  church  living, 
and  to  this  he  was,  more  or  less  to  his  credit,  always 
disinclined.  His  reply  to  Budaeus  is  interesting. 
He  says : 


i5i8]  Basel  and  Louvain  251 

"  I  had  hardly  got  myself  well  out  of  that  very  wordy 
letter,  which  I  guess  will  be  as  tedious  to  you  in  the 
reading  as  it  was  to  me  in  the  writing,  when  another 
letter  of  yours  came  to  me  in  which  you  express  the 
kind  intentions  of  the  Most  Christian  King  towards  me. 
I  will  answer  briefly,  not  to  bore  both  you  and  myself 
to  death  with  verbosity  and  also  because  I  have  to  write 
to  many  others.  The  king's  purpose  is  worthy  of  a 
prince  and  even  of  such  a  prince  as  he.  I  approve  it 
most  highly, 

"  His  splendid  plans  for  me  I  owe  chiefly  to  you,  my 
friend,  who  have  pictured  me,  not  as  I  am,  but  as  you 
would  wish  me  to  be  ; — and  that  at  your  own  risk  as 
much  as  mine.  The  same  subject  was  most  eagerly 
pressed  in  the  king's  name  by  that  most  illustrious  ad- 
vocate, the  bishop  of  Paris,  whom  you  describe  in  your 
letter  no  less  truly  than  graphically.  It  would  be  a  long 
story  to  compress  into  one  letter  all  the  pros  and  cons, 
I  see  what  your  advice  is,  and  I  value  it  the  more  be- 
cause it  is  given  by  a  man  at  once  very  cautious,  and 
very  friendly  to  me.  For  if  ever  there  is  a  place  for 
the  Greek  proverb  :  *  The  gifts  of  the  unfriendly  are 
no  gifts  at  all,'  I  think  it  is  in  matters  of  advice.  But 
while  I  confess  that  I  am  deeply  indebted,  not  only 
to  you  all,  but  especially  to  your  most  excellent  and 
generous  king,  I  cannot  make  any  definite  answer  until 
I  have  discussed  the  plan  with  the  Chancellor  of  Bur- 
gundy, who  has  gone  on  a  journey  to  Cambrai.  ,  ,  . 
I  will  only  say  at 'present  that  France  was  ever  dear  to 
me  on  many  accounts  [we  remember  his  affection  for  the 
College  Montaigu,  and  his  reference  to  that  *  dunghill  of 
a  Paris ']  and  is  now  attractive  to  me  for  no  reason 
stronger  than  that  Budaeus  is  there.  Indeed  there  is  no 
reason  to  make  me  out  a  stranger  as  you  do  for,  if  we 


252  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

may  believe  the  map-makers,  Holland  too  is  a  part  of 
France." 

Nor  does  Erasmus  commit  himself  any  more  de- 
cidedly in  the  personal  letter  which  he  sent  at  the 
same  time  to  King  Francis.'  The  letter  is  filled  with 
adulation,  but  expresses  also  the  writer's  honest  ap- 
proval of  the  king's  momentary  policy  of  peace. 
The  final  phrase,  "  to  whom  I  wholly  give  and 
dedicate  myself,"  must  not  be  construed  as  having 
any  meaning  whatever.  The  offer  was  neither  ac- 
cepted nor  repeated.  We  may  well  doubt  whether 
in  the  year  1516  Erasmus  would  really  have  cared  to 
attach  himself  to  the  French  court  or  to  any  other 
on  any  terms. 

He  mentions  in  several  places,  as  a  sign  of  the 
great  favour  shown  him  by  Francis  I.,  the  fact  that 
he  had  received  a  most  friendly  autograph  letter 
from  the  king.  Such  a  letter  has  indeed  been  found 
among  papers  relating  to  Erasmus  at  Basel.  How 
much  it  may  have  meant  the  reader  may  judge  for 
himself : 

"  Cher  et  bon  amy.  Nous  avons  donne  charge  a  notre 
cher  et  bien  ame  messire  Claude  Cantiuncula,  present 
porteur,  de  vous  dire  et  declairer  aucunes  choses  de  par 
nous,  desquelles  vous  prions  tres  affectueusment  le 
croyre,  et  y  adjouster  entiere  foy,  comme  feriez  a  notre 
propre  personne.  Cher  et  bon  amy,  notre  Seigneur  vous 
ait  en  sa  garde. 

"  Escript  a  Sainct  Germain  en  Laye  le  yme  jour  de 
juillet. 

•Hi.,  185. 


1518]  Basel  and  Louvain  253 

[In  Erasmus'  hand],  "  Je  vous  avertys  que  sy  vous 
^^Hec  rex  scripsit  pro-  voules  venyr  que  vous  seres  le 
pria  manu."  byen  venu 

"  Francoys. 
"  robertet." 

It  has  been  usual  to  explain  his  reluctance  to  at- 
tach himself  anywhere  at  this  time,  by  certain  obli- 
gations towards  the  young  King  Charles  I.  of  Spain, 
later  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  arising  from  his 
appointment  to  a  counsellor's  position  in  the  royal 
household.  That  some  such  of^ce  was  given  him 
in  or  about  the  year  1516  is  quite  certain;  but  that 
he  was  ever  asked  for  his  advice  may  be  doubted,  and 
his  own  complaints  would  indicate  that  he  never  re- 
ceived any  considerable  emoluments  from  his  ofifice. 
A  letter  to  the  imperial  counsellor  Carondiletus  in 
1524  throws  light  upon  both  the  French  call  and  the 
imperial  pension.' 

"  To  reply  at  once  to  your  letter  and  that  of  the  Lady 
Margaret,  I  will  say  in  few  words  that  it  is  not  merely 
smoke  that  the  French  are  showing.  On  the  contrary, 
some  time  ago,  when  Poncher,  Bishop  of  Paris,  was  the 
French  ambassador  at  Brussels,  before  Charles  was  em- 
peror, he  offered  me  in  his  own  name,  over  and  above 
the  king's  bounty,  four  hundred  crowns  besides  all  ex- 
penses, promising  me  also  that  my  leisure  and  my  free- 
dom of  movement  should  be  undisturbed.  .  .  .  The 
reason  why  the  king  of  France  called  me  so  many  times 
he  explained  by  his  messenger.  He  had  determined  to 
establish  at  Paris  a  College  of  the  Three  Languages,  such 
as  there  is  at  Louvain,  and  he  wanted  me  to  be  the  head 

Mii.',  794. 


254  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

of  it.  I  excused  myself,  however,  remembering  how 
much  enmity  and  trouble  I  had  borne  there  from  some 
theologians  on  the  score  of  the  Busleiden  College.  Yet 
my  servant,  when  he  came  back  from  France,  reported 
on  certain  information  that  a  treasury  order  for  a  thou- 
sand pounds  was  ready  and  waiting  for  me  there. 

**  I  have  not  so  far  been  much  of  a  burden  on  the 
treasury  of  my  prince,  for  my  pension  has  only  once 
been  paid  therefrom.  It  has  been  procured  by  another 
process,  without  any  expense  to  the  treasury.  It  costs 
me  a  great  deal  to  live  here,  especially  on  account  of  my 
frequent  illnesses — though  indeed  I  am  in  other  ways  not 
at  all  a  good  manager  with  money.  I  have  already  con- 
tracted a  good  many  debts,  so  that,  even  if  my  health 
would  permit  me  to  leave,  perhaps  my  creditors  would 
not.  I  should,  therefore,  be  very  glad,  if  it  can  be  done, 
to  have  the  pension  for  at  least  one  year  paid  over  to 
this  messenger,  to  relieve  my  immediate  necessity.  I 
send  a  letter  of  the  emperor,  making  the  same  request." 

Again  in  1525  he  writes': 

"  By  the  first  of  September  there  will  be  due  me  eight 
hundred  gold  florins,  the  payment,  that  is,  of  four  years. 
I  don't  see  what  good  I  am  to  get  out  of  this  delay  unless 
perchance  I  am  to  need  money  in  the  Elysian  Fields." 

And  once  more  in  1527  to  Laurinus': 
"  I  have  written  to  your  brother  as  you  wished,  but  I 
see  no  hope  of  the  emperor's  pension  unless  I  return 
thither.  For  the  matter  was  once  for  all  brought  up  in 
council  and  the  reply  was  made  me  in  the  name  of  the 
Lady  Margaret  that  both  the  pension  and  other  things 

'iii.',  874-F.  *iii.',  1009-F. 


I 


1518]      Institutio  Principis  Christiani     255 

worthy  of  me  were  ready  for  me  if  I  would  come  back. 
So  I  do  not  think  that  your  brother,  eloquent  and  earnest 
patron  as  he  is,  ought  to  be  wearied  with  this  affair. 
The  emperor  has  twice  ordered  the  pension  to  be  paid 
to  me  out  of  course,  but  he  is  more  easily  obeyed  when 
he  orders  a  tax  than  when  he  commands  a  payment." 

We  cannot  for  a  monment  believe  that  the  holding 
of  this  honourary  title  required  any  personal  attend- 
ance at  the  royal  court  which  hindered  Erasmus' 
freedom  of  motion  when  he  desired  to  move.  The 
principal  fruit  of  his  appointment  was  the  little 
treatise  called  the  Institutio  Priticipis  Christiani,^ 
written,  probably,  in  acknowledgment  of  the  honour 
and  dedicated  to  the  young  prince.  This  very 
amiable  bit  of  advice  is  a  companion-piece  to  the 
panegyric  upon  the  prince's  father  written  about 
twelve  years  before.  It  is  unlike  that  early  per- 
formance in  being  almost  entirely  free  from  ex- 
aggerated personal  adulation;  it  is  like  it  in  the 
freedom  with  which  it  lays  down  for  the  guidance 
of  the  prince  rules  of  conduct  similar  to  those 
which  ought  to  govern  the  individual  Christian  man 
in  his  dealings  with  the  world  of  his  fellow-men. 
Yet  the  principles  are  not  the  mere  commonplaces 
of  morality.  The  prince  ought  to  be  a  good  man 
in  the  Christian  meaning  of  that  term,  but  not 
merely  good,  as  any  private  man  might  be.  Eras- 
mus has  at  every  point  a  reason  for  the  particu- 
lar exercise  of  virtue  he  may  be  commending,  and 
his  illustrations,  drawn  chiefly  from  the  best  rulers 

'iv.,  593-6ia. 


^5^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

of  antiquity,  are  pertinent  and  show,  of  course,  the 
widest  and  readiest  command  of  the  ancient  literat- 
ures. To  estimate  aright  the  significance  and 
value  of  Erasmus'  declarations  on  public  policy,  we 
must  remember  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  contem- 
porary of  Macchiavelli,  whose  Principe,  with  its 
total  indifference  to  the  moral  point  of  view,  was 
already  written  and  undoubtedly  in  circulation  in 
manuscript,  though  not  printed  until  1532.  Whether 
it  was  known  to  Erasmus  we  cannot  say.  If  it  was, 
he  could  hardly  have  made  a  more  complete  reply 
to  it  than  this.  Macchiavelli  took  the  world  as  it 
was,  especially  that  Italian  part  of  it  which  he  knew 
best,  and,  assuming  that  the  process  of  state-build- 
ing which  he  saw  going  on  all  about  him  was  to 
continue  along  similar  lines,  he  simply  laid  down 
the  principles  of  success  in  that  process.  Erasmus, 
on  the  other  hand,  assuming  that  human  society  was 
a  moral  organism,  was  not  concerned  chiefly  with 
outward  or  momentary  success,  but  rather  with  the 
higher  moral  function  of  the  ruler.  He  believed 
that  success  founded  upon  morality  would  be  higher 
and  more  enduring  than  that  which  rested  upon 
mere  expediency.  The  central  point  of  view  with 
Macchiavelli  was  the  person  of  the  prince;  Erasmus 
thought  of  the  prince  only  as  the  servant  of  his 
people.  Both  drew,  or  thought  they  drew,  their 
inspiration  from  classic  tradition ;  but  Macchiavelli 
sought  for  his  illustrations  at  those  points  of  ancient 
history  where  his  principles  seemed  to  be  worked 
out  into  great  and  enduring  political  structures, 
while  Erasmus  drew  from   the  decay  of  precisely 


i5i8]     Institutio  Principis  Christian!      257 

the  same  institutions  his  lesson  of  the  permanence 
of  moral  obligation  and  of  that  alone. 

Perhaps  the  best  and  most  pertinent  example  of 
his  method  of  treatment  is  found  in  the  chapter  on 
taxation.  It  will  be  evident  that  the  questions 
which  were  disturbing  his  mind  have  not  yet  ceased 
to  agitate  the  world.  Substitute  for  "  prince  "  the 
word  "  government,"  and  it  will  appear  that  most 
of  the  financial  problems  of  our  present  day  were 
burning  questions  in  the  days  of  Erasmus  and 
Thomas  More;  for  in  More's  Utopia  we  have  in 
the  main  the  same  moral  elevation  applied  to  the 
same  questions  as  in  the  Institutio.     Erasmus  says ' : 

"  The  ancient  writers  tell  us  that  many  rebellions  have 
arisen  from  immoderate  taxation.  The  good  prince 
ought  therefore  to  see  to  it  that  the  minds  of  his  people 
should  be  as  little  as  possible  disturbed  by  these  matters. 
Let  him  if  possible  govern  without  expense  to  them. 
The  office  of  the  prince  is  too  lofty  to  be  used  for  money- 
making.  The  good  prince  has  for  his  own  whatever  his 
loving  subjects  have.  There  have  been  many  heathen 
who  put  nothing  into  their  treasuries  from  serving  the 
state  save  glory  alone  ;  and  some,  like  Fabius  Maximus 
and  Antoninus  Pius,  despised  even  this.  How  much 
more,  then,  ought  the  Christian  prince  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  consciousness  of  rectitude,  especially  since  he 
serves  a  Master  who  leaves  no  good  deed  without  ample 
reward.  There  are  men  who  busy  themselves  with  no- 
thing but  finding  out  new  devices  for  cheating  the  people, 
and  think  they  are  best  serving  the  prince  by  making 

'»v.,  593-594. 

IT 


25S  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

theraselves  the  enemies  of  his  subjects.  Let  him  who 
listens  to  them  know  that  he  is  far  from  the  true  ideal  of 
a  prince. 

"  The  very  best  way  to  increase  the  revenue  is  to  cut 
off  unnecessary  expense,  doing  away  with  burdensome 
service,  avoiding  wars  and  journeys  that  are  like  wars, 
checking  the  greed  of  officials,  and  trying  rather  to  gov- 
ern well  what  the  prince  has,  than  to  get  more.  Other- 
wise, if  he  is  to  measure  his  taxes  by  his  greed  or  his 
ambition,  what  limit  or  end  of  taxation  will  there  be  ? 
For  desire  is  infinite  and  is  always  pressing  and  straining 
at  what  it  has  once  begun  until,  according  to  the  old 
proverb,  the  overdrawn  rope  will  break  and  the  ex- 
hausted patience  of  the  people  burst  forth  into  rebellion, 
whereby  the  most  powerful  empires  have  been  ruined. 

"  But,  if  necessity  demands  that  something  shall  be 
exacted  of  the  people,  then  it  is  the  part  of  a  good 
prince  to  do  it  in  such  a  way  that  the  least  burden  may 
fall  upon  those  who  have  least.  For  it  may  be  a  good 
thing  to  summon  the  rich  to  frugality,  but  to  compel  the 
poor  to  hunger  and  the  gallows  is  not  merely  inhuman, 
but  dangerous  as  well.  .  .  .  Let  him  well  ponder 
this,  that  an  expense  once  incurred  at  some  emergency 
as  pertaining  to  the  advantage  of  the  prince  or  the  no- 
bility, can  never  be  abolished.  When  the  emergency  is 
past,  not  only  ought  the  burden  to  be  taken  from  the 
people,  but  the  outlay  of  that  former  period  ought,  as 
far  as  possible,  to  be  remedied  and  made  good.  Let 
him  who  cares  for  his  people  beware  of  the  corrupt  pre- 
cedent. If  he  rejoices  in  the  calamity  of  his  own  citi- 
zens or  gives  no  thought  to  it,  he  is  as  far  as  can  be  from 
being  a  prince,  no  matter  by  what  name  he  is  called. 

"  It  ought  to  be  provided  for  that  there  be  not  too 
great  inequality  of  wealth  ; — not  that  I  would  have  any- 


I5I8J     Institutio  Principis  Christiani      259 

one  deprived  of  his  goods  by  force,  but  that  care  should 
be  taken  lest  the  wealth  of  the  whole  community  be 
limited  to  a  certain  few.  For  Plato  would  have  his  citi- 
zens neither  too  rich  nor  too  poor,  because  the  poor  man 
cannot  be  of  profit  to  the  state,  and  the  rich  man,  after 
his  kind,  does  not  want  to  profit  it.  Nor  do  princes 
even  gain  wealth  by  exactions  of  this  sort.  If  anyone 
would  prove  this,  let  him  consider  how  much  less  his 
ancestors  took  from  their  subjects,  how  much  more  they 
gave,  and  yet  how  much  more  of  everything  they  had, 
because  a  great  part  of  these  present  taxes  slips  between 
the  fingers  of  those  who  collect  and  receive  them,  but 
only  a  very  small  part  ever  gets  to  the  prince  himself. 

"  Then,  whatever  things  are  in  common  use  by  the 
mass  of  the  people,  these  a  good  prince  will  tax  as  lightly 
as  possible,  as  for  example,  corn,  bread,  beer,  wine,  cloth- 
ing, and  other  things  without  which  human  life  cannot 
go  on.  But  now  these  things  are  especially  burdened, 
and  that  in  many  different  ways  :  first,  by  the  very  heavy 
exactions  of  the  contractors  which  the  people  call  as- 
sizes, then  by  duties  which  have  also  their  contractors, 
and  finally  by  monopolies  which  bring  little  to  the 
prince,  but  crush  the  poor  by  higher  prices. 

"  So  then,  as  I  have  said,  let  the  income  of  the  prince 
be  increased  by  economy,  according  to  the  old  proverb  : 
*  Thrift  is  a  great  revenue.'  But  if  some  duties  cannot 
be  avoided  and  the  interest  of  the  people  demands  it, 
then  let  the  burden  fall  upon  foreign  and  outlandish 
wares,  which  have  to  do  rather  with  the  luxury  and  re- 
finements of  life  than  with  necessity,  and  which  are 
used  by  the  rich  alone,  as  for  example,  fine  linen,  silks, 
purple,  perfumes,  unguents,  gems,  and  everything  of  that 
sort.  For  this  burden  is  felt  only  by  those  whose  fort- 
unes can  bear  it  and  who  by  these  payments  are  not 


26o  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

reduced  to  want,  but  perchance  are  rendered  more  frugal, 
so  that  by  loss  of  money,  good  morals  are  improved." 

It  would  be  going  too  far  to  say  that  these  eco- 
nomic and  financial  views  of  Erasmus  are  purely  orig- 
inal ;  they  are  doubtless  gathered  from  his  reading 
of  the  ancients,  especially  from  Plato  and  Aristotle ; 
they  are,  however,  addressed  with  perfect  directness 
to  evils  of  his  own  time  and  they  show  us  that  his 
mind  was  working  upon  matters  of  large  public 
import,  as  well  as  upon  his  more  purely  scholarly 
interests. 

It  would  be  impossible  for  Erasmus  to  go  through 
any  treatise  on  public  affairs  without  saying  some- 
thing about  the  wickedness  and  folly  of  fighting, 
and  so  we  find  him  concluding  his  Institutio  with  a 
chapter  on  the  undertaking  of  war.  It  is  his  familiar 
argument,  but  especially  follows  the  point  that  war 
should  not  be  undertaken  until  all  other  methods  of 
composing  differences  shall  have  failed.  "If  we 
were  of  this  mind  there  would  hardly  ever  be  a  war 
anywhere."  He  shows  very  clearly  how  seldom  the 
alleged  cause  of  war  affects  the  people  of  a  country. 
Such  causes  are  usually  the  private  affair  of  princes. 

"  Because  one  prince  offends  another  in  some  trifle,  and 
that  a  private  matter,  about  relationship  by  marriage  or 
some  such  thing,  what  is  this  to  the  people  as  a  whole  ? 
The  good  prince  measures  all  things  by  the  advantage 
of  the  people,  otherwise  he  were  not  even  a  prince.  The 
law  is  not  the  same  towards  men  and  towards  beasts.  .  .  . 
But  if  some  dissensions  arise  between  princes  why  not 
rather  resort  to  arbiters  ?     There  are  so  many  bishops. 


i5i8]      Institutio  Principis  Christiani      261 

so  many  abbots,  scholars,  serious  magistrates,  by  whose 
judgment  such  a  matter  might  far  more  decently  be  com- 
posed than  by  so  much  murder,  pillage,  and  misfortune 
throughout  the  world." 

Here  is  international  arbitration,  pure  and  simple, 
a  doctrine  not  appearing  in  the  Utopia,  and,  so  far 
as  I  know,  not  to  be  found  in  any  modern  writer 
before  Erasmus;  a  dream  as  yet  in  his  time  and 
long  to  remain  so,  but,  in  the  vast  ebb  and  flow  of 
human  affairs,  coming  ever  nearer  to  some  definite 
realisation. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  argument  of  Erasmus 
against  war  is  the  utter  hopelessness  of  it  as  a  means 
of  gaining  the  ultimate  good  of  the  state. 

But,*  they  say,  '  what  safety  will  there  ever  be,  if 
no  one  pursues  his  right  ? '  By  all  means  let  right  be 
pursued,  if  this  be  of  advantage  to  the  state,  but  let  not 
the  right  of  the  prince  be  too  costly  to  the  people.  And 
pray  what  safety  is  there  now,  when  everyone  is  pursu- 
ing his  right  to  the  very  death  ?  We  see  wars  arising 
from  wars,  war  following  upon  war,  and  no  limit  or  end 
to  the  confusion.  So  it  is  clear  enough  that  by  these 
means  nothing  is  accomplished.  Therefore  other  reme- 
dies ought  to  be  tried.  Even  between  friends  there  would 
be  no  bond  unless  they  sometimes  made  concessions, 
one  to  the  other.  The  husband  often  pardons  certain 
things  to  his  wife,  that  harmony  between  them  may  not 
be  broken.  What  does  war  breed,  but  war  ?  while  gentle- 
ness calls  forth  gentleness  and  equity  invites  equity." 

The  closing  paragraph  has  almost  a  ring  of  irony 
in  view  of  the  future  course  of  the  young  prince,  for 
whose  edification  all  this  wisdom  was  put  forth. 


262  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

"  I  doubt  not,  most  illustrious  Prince,  that  you  are  of 
the  same  mind  ;  for  so  you  were  born  and  so  you  have 
been  taught  by  the  best  and  most  sincere  teachers.  As 
for  the  rest,  I  pray  that  Christus  optimus  maximus  may 
prosper  your  noble  efforts.  He  has  given  you  an  em- 
pire without  bloodshed  ;  his  will  is  that  you  preserve  it 
ever  free  from  blood.  May  it  come  to  pass  that  through 
your  goodness  and  wisdom  we  may  at  last  have  a  rest 
from  these  mad  wars.  Peace  will  be  made  precious  to 
us  by  the  memory  of  evils  past  and  our  gratitude  to  you 
will  be  doubled  by  the  misfortunes  of  other  times." 

All  this  to  Charles  of  Burgundy,  already  Most 
Catholic  King  of  Spain,  within  a  year  to  be  elected 
Holy  Roman  Emperor,  and  destined  for  the  next 
generation  to  turn  Europe  into  a  battle-field  for  ob- 
jects in  which  no  one  of  his  numerous  subject 
peoples  had  the  remotest  interest !  Evidently  the 
man  who  could  give  only  such  counsel  as  this  was 
not  likely  to  be  sought  as  an  intimate  adviser  of  the 
prince.  In  fact  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
Erasmus'  settlement  at  Louvain  had  more  than  a 
nominal  connection  with  his  appointment  as  imperial 
councillor.  He  was  a  councillor  much  in  the  sense 
of  the  modern  German  "  Geheimrath." 

Erasmus  took  up  his  residence  at  Louvain  in  1 5 16, 
not,  so  far  as  we  know,  in  the  capacity  of  a  regular 
teacher,  though  he  occupied  a  room  in  the  univers- 
ity. There  is  the  usual  uncertainty  as  to  his  mo- 
tives and  feelings  about  the  change.  Writing  to 
Ammonius  from  Brussels  in  the  autumn  of   15 16,' 

'iii.,  137  E-F. 


:il' 

w 

Progenies  -  divvm-  oy  intvs  -  5ic  •  carolvs  •  ille 

' 

Imperii  ■  caesar-  lvmina-  et  •  ora  -tvlit. 

\i 

AET              SVAE               XXXI 

!                 Ann  •  m     d  -  xxxi 

EMPEROR  CHARLES  V. 

FROM  AN  ENGRAVING  BY  BARTEL  8EHAM,    1931. 


i5i8]     Institutio  Principis  Christiani      263 

he  says,  "  I  am  most  eager  to  hear  how  our  busi- 
ness is  getting  on."  Such  passages  of  mysterious 
meaning  occur  in  almost  every  letter  to  this  fellow- 
scholar  and  indicate  clearly  that  Ammonius  was  con- 
tinually working  in  Erasmus*  interest.  They  are 
now  made  somewhat  clearer  by  the  discoveries  of 
W.  Vischer  at  Basel.  The  reference  is  probably  to 
the  negotiations  with  the  papacy  in  regard  to  the 
dispensations  which  bear  date  a  few  months  later. 
It  is  probable  also  that  Ammonius  was  putting  in  a 
word  as  he  could  in  England  to  secure  the  regular 
payment  of  his  friend's  allowances.  The  letter  goes 
on: 

*'  I  am  going  to  winter  in  Brussels.  Whatever  you 
may  send  to  Tunstall  [the  English  ambassador  at  Brus- 
sels] will  be  handed  to  me  at  once  ;  I  am  in  continual 
relations  with  him.  I  am  not  disposed  to  go  to  Louvain. 
There  I  should  have  to  be  paying  my  duty  to  the  schol- 
astics at  my  own  cost.  The  young  men  would  be  yelp- 
ing at  me  all  the  time  :  '  correct  this  ode  ;  or  this  epistle,* 
one  will  be  calling  for  this  author,  one  for  that.  There  is 
no  one  there  who  can  be  either  a  help  or  an  attraction  to 
me.  Besides  all  this  I  should  have  to  listen  sometimes  to 
the  snarlings  of  the  pseudo-theologians,  the  most  unpleas- 
ant kind  of  men.  Lately  there  has  arisen  one  of  these  who 
has  stirred  up  almost  a  tumult  against  me,  so  that  I  am 
now  holding  the  wolf  by  the  ears,  able  neither  to  kill 
him  nor  to  get  away.  He  flatters  me  to  my  face  and 
bites  behind  my  back,  promises  me  a  friend  and  offers 
me  an  enemy.  Would  that  mighty  Jove  would  smash 
up  this  whole  class  of  men  and  make  them  over  again  ; 
for  they  contribute  nothing  to  make  us  better  or  wiser, 
but  are  always  making  trouble  with  everyone." 


264  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

But  having  had  his  grumble,  Erasmus  made  up  his 
mind  to  go.  During  the  next  four  years  Louvain 
was  more  his  home  than  any  other  place.  He  left 
it,  as  we  have  seen,  often  and  for  months  together, 
but  it  seems  to  have  suited  him  as  well  as  he  was 
willing  to  be  suited  anywhere.  His  accounts  of  his 
relations  with  the  place  and  the  people  are  as 
apparently  inconsistent  as  his  utterances  on  other 
subjects.  Within  a  short  time  after  his  settlement 
he  writes  to  Tunstall : 

"  I  find  the  theologians  at  Louvain  men  of  high  char- 
acter and  culture,  especially  John  Atensis,  Chancellor  of 
this  University,  a  man  of  incomparable  learning  and 
endowed  with  rare  refinement.  There  is  here  no  less 
theological  learning  than  at  Paris,  but  it  is  of  a  less 
sophistical  and  arrogant  sort." 

Again,  in  the  autumn  of  1518,  he  writes: 

"  The  air  thus  far  remains  pure  ;  there  have  been  few 
cases  of  illness,  and  those  of  disease  imported  from 
elsewhere." 

As  to  the  individual  scholars,  he  found  himself  on 
the  best  of  terms  with  Martin  Dorpius,  the  critic  of 
his  Moria,  of  whom  he  said  in  1520,  "  on  account 
of  his  distinguished  talents  for  learning  and  elo- 
quence I  could  not  hate  him  even  when  he  was  made 
use  of  against  me  by  evil  managers."  Dorpius  con- 
tinued to  be  his  friend  and  admirer,  as  appears  from 
the  letter  to  Beatus,  in  which  he  is  described  as  one 
of  Erasmus*  chief  comforters  during  his  tedious  ill- 
ness after  the  Rhine  journey. 


i5i8]     Institutio  Principis  Christiani      265 

During  Erasmus'  residence  at  Louvain  occurred 
the  foundation  of  the  College  of  the  Three  Lan- 
guages by  Jerome  Busleiden,  brother  of  a  former 
archbishop  of  Besangon,  and  himself  a  councillor  of 
the  King  of  Spain.  Erasmus  writes  in  15 18  to  a 
third  brother,  ^gidius,  referring  to  his  attempts  at 
making  an  epitaph  for  Jerome : 

"  How  many  attractions  have  we  lost  in  this  one  man  ! 
I  can  easily  imagine  your  feelings  at  the  loss  of  your 
brother,  when  the  whole  chorus  of  good  and  learned 
men  is  breaking  into  one  lament.  But  why  these  empty 
regrets,  why  these  useless  tears  ?  We  are  all  born  to 
this  fate." 

He  is  not  well  satisfied  with  his  epitaphs  and  evi- 
dently has  some  fear  that  the  bequest  will  not  be 
carried  out. 

"  As  to  founding  the  college,  see  that  you  are  not  led 
away  from  that  purpose.  Believe  me,  this  thing  will  not 
only  contribute  more  than  I  can  say  to  every  branch  of 
learning  but  will  also  add  to  the  name  of  Busleiden, 
already  so  distinguished  in  many  ways,  no  little  increase 
of  honour  and  splendour." 

These  fears  were  not  justified ;  the  college  was 
founded  and  the  advice  of  Erasmus  was  sought  in 
the  difficult  matter  of  finding  suitable  teachers  to 
fill  the  new  chairs.  We  have  several  of  the  letters 
written  by  him  in  the  discharge  of  this  commission. 
One  of  these,  to  John  Lascaris,  a  native  Greek 
scholar,  is  interesting  in  several  ways.  It  is  one  of 
the  clearest  illustrations  of  Erasmus'  power  of  direct 


266  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1515- 

statement  when  a  matter  of  business  was  in  hand. 
He  first  states  the  terms  of  Busleiden's  bequest  to 
found  a  college 

"  in  which  shall  be  taught  publicly  and  without  expense 
the  three  languages,  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin,  with 
the  sufficiently  splendid  salary  of  about  seventy  ducats, 
which  may  be  increased  according  to  the  value  of  the 
person.  The  Hebrew  and  Latin  teachers  are  on  hand. 
Many  are  competing  for  the  Greek  professorship,  but 
it  has  always  been  my  opinion  that  a  native  Greek  should 
be  procured,  so  that  the  hearers  may  get  the  correct  pro- 
nunciation at  once.  All  the  trustees  of  this  undertaking 
agree  with  me  and  have  commissioned  me  to  invite, 
in  their  behalf,  whomever  I  should  judge  suitable  for 
this  position.  I  therefore  beg  you,  both  by  your  wonted 
kindness  to  me  and  your  devotion  to  the  cause  of  learn- 
ing, if  you  know  anyone  who  you  think  would  do  honour 
to  yourself  and  to  me,  to  send  him  hither  as  soon  as  you 
can.  He  will  have  money  for  the  journey,  his  salary, 
and  his  lodgings.  He  will  have  to  do  with  men  of  hon- 
our and  refinement.  He  may  have  the  same  confidence 
in  my  letter  as  if  the  affair  were  sealed  with  a  hundred 
contracts.  Between  good  men  a  bargain  may  be  as  well 
made  without  bonds.  You  select  the  proper  man,  and  I 
will  see  to  it  that  he  shall  not  regret  coming." 

The  Hebrew  teacher  referred  to  was  a  Jew  named 
Adrian,  chosen,  it  would  appear,  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple of  employing  native  teachers.  It  must  have 
required  a  steady  nerve  to  recommend  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  Jew,  even  a  converted  one,  at  a  time 
when  the  affair  of  Reuchlin,  turning  on  just  this 
question  of  respect  for  Hebrew  learning,  had  barely 


i5i8]     Institutio  Principis  Christian!      267 

ceased  to  agitate  the  world  of  scholars,  Erasmus 
commends  Adrian  to  iEgidius  Busleiden  in  a  letter ' 
of  sound  practical  sense.  Fortune  has  just  thrown 
him  in  their  way; 

**  he  is  a  Hebrew  by  birth  but  long  since  a  Christian 
by  religion,  a  physician  by  profession,  and  so  skilled  in 
the  whole  Hebrew  literature  that  in  my  judgment  there 
is  no  one  at  this  day  to  be  compared  with  him.  But  if 
my  opinion  has  not  sufficient  weight  with  you,  all  whom 
I  have  known  in  Germany  or  in  Italy  who  were  versed 
in  that  language,  have  borne  the  same  testimony.  He 
not  only  knows  the  language  perfectly,  but  is  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  the  mysteries  of  the  authors  and  has 
them  all  at  his  fingers'  ends.  .  .  .  Pray  command 
me  if  there  is  anything  in  which  you  think  I  can  assist 
you." 

The  Latin  professor  mentioned  was  Conrad 
Goclenius,  the  man  of  all  others  whom  Erasmus 
selected  some  few  years  later,  when  he  thought  he 
was  going  to  die,  as  the  confidant  of  his  most  in- 
timate thoughts  and  wishes. 

'"»•.  353-A. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  REFORMATION — CORRESPOND- 
ENCE  OF    1518-I519 

ON  many  accounts,  the  residence  at  Louvain 
ought  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  satisfac- 
tory of  Erasmus*  life.  He  was  in  the  midst  of  a  con- 
genial activity  not  limited  by  any  prescribed  duties, 
free  from  great  anxiety  about  money,  secure  at  any 
moment  of  some  honourable  appointment  if  he  chose 
to  accept  it,  in  fairly  good  health,  and  with  working 
powers  quite  undiminished  by  advancing  years. 

In  the  year  15 18  there  can  be  no  question  that 
the  name  of  Erasmus  was  the  most  widely  known 
and  honoured  among  European  scholars.  His  New 
Testament  with  its  display  of  learning  and  its  revela- 
tion of  a  new  principle  of  criticism,  had  demonstrated 
his  character  as  a  serious  thinker  upon  the  most  im- 
portant questions  of  religious  faith  and  practice.  If 
we  seek  to  define  this  principle  we  shall  be  unable  to 
fix  it  by  any  categories  of  philosophy  or  of  theologi- 
cal precedent.  In  the  last  analysis  we  are  brought 
back  every  time  to  the  principle  of  common  sense 
working  upon  the  accepted  dogmatic  bases  of  the 
existing  church  system. 

His  freedom  of  speech  had  always  been  kept  care- 
fully within  the  bounds  of  doctrinal  orthodoxy.     He 

268 


1519]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    269 

could  safely  defy  his  critics  to  point  to  a  single  in- 
stance of  anything  that  might  by  any  reasonable 
interpretation  be  described  as  heresy.  He  knew 
that  in  his  criticism,  so  far  as  it  had  gone,  he  was 
supported  by  the  best  opinion  of  the  men  of  en- 
lightenment everywhere,  and  relying  upon  this  sup- 
port he  could  put  on  the  confident  tone  of  a  man 
who  feels  himself  on  the  winning  side. 

The  generation  in  which  Erasmus  had  grown  up 
to  his  fiftieth  year  was  eminently  one  of  progress  in 
every  form  of  enlightenment  and  expansion.  He 
was  twenty-five  when  Columbus  discovered  America 
and  gave  the  first  impulse  to  that  intoxicating  sense 
of  limitless  possibility  which  from  time  to  time  has 
seized  upon  a  generation  of  men  and  carried  it  on 
to  great  triumphs — but  always  also  to  disappoint- 
ments more  keenly  felt  than  its  successes.  Along 
with  the  discovery  of  the  earth  had  gone  with  equal, 
even  with  more  rapid  pace,  the  discovery  of  man. 
The  ban  which  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  had 
lain  upon  the  human  spirit  as  individual,  with  pow- 
ers of  its  own  and  the  right  to  use  them,  was  rapidly 
being  lifted.  The  cunning  plebeian  who  had  learned 
how  to  mix  the  subtle  ingredients  of  gunpowder  and 
put  it  into  the  hands  of  his  fellow-plebeians,  had 
taught  the  world  an  argument  against  the  rights  of 
princes,  more  potent  than  all  the  philosophers  from 
Marsiglio  of  Padua  down  had  been  able  to  furnish. 
That  other  plebeian  group  who  had  lit  upon  the 
marvellously  simple  device  of  multiplying  copies  of 
writings  by  means  of  movable  types,  had  opened 
up  possibilities  of  education  and  therefore  of  achieve- 


270  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

ment,  whose  end  the  imagination  of  man  could  not 
compass. 

At  first,  doubtless,  this  vast  outlook  into  the  un- 
known had  terrified  as  well  as  fascinated  the  world. 
All  established  institutions  whose  claim  to  existence 
rested  upon  an  undisputed  tradition,  trembled  lest 
their  foundation  should  be  shaken.  Princes  dreaded 
the  union  of  the  long-oppressed  peasants  and  citizens 
with  gunpowder  in  their  hands.  The  guardians  of 
the  treasure  of  thought  which  had  come  down  from 
the  past  shuddered  at  the  spreading  of  "  danger- 
ous "  ideas  broadcast  through  the  land  by  the  busy 
printing-press. 

But  gradually  these  apprehensions  had  been 
allayed.  The  social  revolution  threatened  by  gun- 
powder was  delayed  as  has  been  so  far  that  which 
is  threatened  by  dynamite.  Economic  laws  would 
not  be  broken  and  the  forces  of  discontent,  active 
during  the  late  fourteenth  and  early  fifteenth  cent- 
uries, had  been  gradually  brought  into  an  apparent 
harmony  with  the  forces  of  order  and  tradition. 
Once  more  the  great  leading  powers  had  come  out 
of  a  long  conflict  victorious,  though  modified.  The 
state-governments  had  overcome  the  attacks  of  con- 
stitutionalism, and  seemed  to  be  more  independent 
of  control  than  ever.  The  monarchy  of  Francis  I., 
of  Henry  VIII.,  and  Charles  V.  seemed  to  have 
beaten  down  every  opposition,  but  it  had  also  learned 
its  lessons.  If  it  would  control  the  public  life  of 
its  several  states,  it  must  itself  meet  the  evident  de- 
mands of  its  subjects,  so  far  as  it  could  do  so  with- 
out abandoning  its  own  supreme  prerogative.    So  the 


isrg]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    271 

papacy,  threatened  by  the  aggressive  constitutional- 
ism of  the  fifteenth-century  councils,  had  overcome 
that  danger  and  during  the  lifetime  of  Erasmus 
had  seemed  to  recover  more  than  its  ancient  pre- 
stige. But  it  had  purchased  this  recovery  by  vast 
adjustments  to  conditions  it  could  not  change.  It, 
too,  in  its  turn  had  become  "  enlightened  "  and 
gone  so  far  into  the  prevailing  liberalism  of  thought 
that  it  had  deprived  it  of  its  sting.  It  might  well 
seem  an  idle  task  to  turn  the  weapons  of  the  "  higher 
criticism  "  against  a  papacy  which  was  itself  sup- 
porting the  cause  of  critical  learning  with  every 
resource  at  its  command. 

No  greater  proof  of  this  apparent  readjustment  of 
opposing  forces  could  be  offered  than  the  dedication 
of  Erasmus'  New  Testament,  the  ripest  product  of 
the  critical  scholarship  of  the  time,  to  Pope  Leo 
himself.  It  was  a  bold  stroke,  but  it  paid.  The 
unstinted  approval  of  the  pope  gave  Erasmus  a 
backing  worth  more  to  him  at  the  moment  than  any 
praise  of  scholars  like  himself.  But  it  bound  him 
also  the  more  firmly  to  an  allegiance  he  dared  not 
break,  lest  the  form  of  success  most  precious  to  him 
in  life  should  be  endangered. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  constitutional  opposition 
to  the  papacy  by  the  fifteenth-century  councils. 
Parallel  with  this  and  often  combined  with  it  had 
gone  an  opposition  growing  out  of  national  interests. 
This,  too,  the  papacy  seemed  to  have  overcome  by 
the  same  policy  of  adjustment.  It  had  allowed  the 
largest  scope  to  national  control  of  the  Church 
consistent  with    its   supreme  leadership,    and   had 


2  72  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

even  given  emphasis  to  the  national  idea  by  push- 
ing to  the  utmost  its  claim  to  be  one  among  the 
powers  of  Europe.  The  whole  political  activity  of 
the  papacy  during  this  most  active  generation  was 
based  upon  a  recognition  of  the  national  states  and 
a  steady  aim  to  gain  their  recognition  in  turn  for 
its  own  well  developed  sovereignty.  A  pope's 
"  niece  "  or  "  nephew  "  was  as  good  a  parti  for  a 
royal  house  as  the  offspring  of  any  princely  family 
in  Europe. 

So  complete,  apparently,  was  this  adjustment  of 
all  the  forces  of  European  society  that  the  great 
outbreak  of  the  Lutheran  reform  movement  was  a 
complete  surprise  and  an  incredible  shock  to  all 
established  institutions.  The  historian  can,  indeed, 
trace  with  perfect  continuity  the  lines  of  develop- 
ment which  centre  in  that  wonderful  movement, 
when  a  monk,  in  an  obscure  town  in  the  remote 
north  of  Germany,  drew  the  eyes  of  all  Europe  to 
himself  by  gathering  up  into  one  passionate  expres- 
sion the  long-suppressed  protest  against  the  tyranny 
of  the  dominant  church  system.  But,  on  the  sur- 
face of  things,  in  the  year  15 17,  there  was  little  to 
point  to  this  historic  continuity.  To  all  appearance 
the  great  impulse  of  Wiclif  in  England  had  died  out 
with  the  suppression  of  open  Lollardry  just  a  hun- 
dred years  before.  John  Hus,  the  spiritual  heir  of 
Wiclif,  had  been  sacrificed  at  Constance  in  1415  to 
a  combination  of  forces,  some  of  which  were  to  prove 
themselves  in  reality  the  stoutest  allies  of  the  ideas 
he  represented.  True,  the  fires  at  Constance  had 
kindled  a  flame  in  Bohemia,  which  defied  all  efforts 


I5I9]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    273 

of  pope  and  emperor  to  put  it  out  until  dissensions 
within  the  party  of  revolt  scattered  and  quenched 
the  material  on  which  it  fed.  But  after  the  Council 
at  Basel  (143 1- 1443)  the  great  readjustment  carried 
Bohemia,  too,  along  into  the  general  scheme  of  con- 
ciliation. At  that  moment  a  party,  henceforth  to 
be  known  as  the  party  of  enlightenment,  seized 
upon  the  papacy,  and  with  Thomas  Parentucelli 
(Nicholas  V. ,  1447-145  5)  began  that  series  of  human- 
istic popes,  -^Eneas  Sylvius  Piccolomini  (Pius  II., 
1458-1464),  Giuliano  delle  Rovere  (Julius  II.,  1503- 
1513),  and  Giovanni  de'  Medici  (Leo  X.,  1513-1521), 
who  were  ready  to  sacrifice  all  other  interests  to  the 
aggrandisement  of  their  personal  power  and  the  ad- 
vancement of  a  higher  cultivation  and  refinement  of 
life. 

It  must  be  said  that  in  the  things  men  cared  most 
about  in  the  two  generations  before  the  year  15 17, 
the  government  of  the  Church  was  such  as  suited 
the  peoples  of  Europe.  It  was  an  easy-going  sys- 
tem. It  did  not  call  for  any  application  of  the  new 
spirit  of  inquiry  to  the  prevailing  institutions  in 
Church  and  State.  It  was  not  insisting  upon  any 
too  rigid  morality  either  in  the  clergy  or  in  the  laity. 
Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  was  it  overzealous  in  press- 
ing its  own  claims  too  far.  There  is  a  grim  sense 
of  humour  in  the  attitude  of  the  Church  towards  its 
own  institutions,  so  long  as  their  existence  was  not 
threatened  and  no  diminution  of  revenue  was  in 
sight.  All  the  system  asked  was  to  be  let  alone. 
The  Church  knew  that  many  of  its  claims  had  come 
to  be  absurd.     Nowhere  was  this  so  well  understood 


2  74  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

as  in  Italy  and  above  all  at  Rome.  So  frank  a 
"  heathen  "  as  Leo  X.  was  not  likely  to  insist  too 
eagerly  upon  ideas  or  practices  which  he  knew  to  be 
mere  superstitions  of  the  vulgar — not  likely,  that  is, 
to  press  these  matters  until  they  were  attacked. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  should  be  attacked, 
would  this  papacy  be  thoroughgoing  enough  in  its 
enlightenment  and  its  indifference  to  let  them  go, 
or  would  it  rally  to  their  defence  all  the  forces  of 
reaction  ?  That  was  the  problem  of  the  Reforma- 
tion period.  If  one  approaches  it  from  the  side  of 
enlightenment,  one  is  at  once  impressed  with  the 
vast  opportunity  opened  to  the  papacy.  It  had 
already  adjusted  itself  to  so  many  changes,  it  had 
so  often  found  ways  of  taking  the  sting  out  of  ideas 
and  movements  which  seemed  to  threaten  its  very 
life,  that  sanguine  men,  like  Erasmus,  might  well 
feel  encouraged  to  hope  that  it  would  once  more 
rise  to  the  occasion.  The  world  of  Europe  was 
filled  with  friendly  criticism  of  its  forms  and 
methods;  but  as  yet  there  had  been  few  voices 
raised  against  its  existence. 

Dante,  in  his  treatise  on  a  single  government  for 
the  world  {de  Monarchia),  still  clings  to  the  mediaeval 
conception  of  a  twin  administration  of  Christendom, 
only  with  the  religious  side  distinctly  subordinated 
to  the  temporal.  Even  Wiclif  and  Hus  had  been 
led  to  defy  the  papacy  only  by  the  logic  of  events; 
hostility  to  a  papal  organisation  of  church  life  was 
not  an  essential  part  of  their  original  programme. 
Even  Marsiglio  of  Padua  had  reserved  to  the  papacy 
a  wide  sphere  of  activity,  limited  only  by  constitu- 


1519]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    275 

tional  rights  of  governments  and  peoples.  The 
literature  of  the  conciliar  period,  covering  the  first 
half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  does  not  succeed  in 
casting  off  the  spell  of  the  papal  idea,  but  aims  to 
check  and  control  its  dangers  to  the  public  welfare. 
A  constitutional  papacy  was  the  ideal  of  that  time, 
not  a  Church  without  a  papacy.  All  these  attacks 
the  mediaeval  system  had  met  with  amazing  success. 
It  had  dealt  its  blows  sparingly,  but  with  great  effect. 
Where  its  enemies  had  been  backed  up  by  powerful 
interests,  as  was  Wiclif  in  England,  it  had  seemed 
to  fail  and  had  bided  its  time.  Where  it  could  itself 
combine  with  other  interests  against  them,  as  against 
Hus  at  Constance,  it  had  hit  hard  and  with  precision. 

It  may  be  said  with  some  certainty  that  if  the 
papacy  of  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth  century 
had  been  inclined  to  meet  criticism  half-way,  critic- 
ism would  not  have  turned  into  hostility.  As  one 
looks  over  the  field  of  European  society  and  politics 
in  the  two  generations  before  15 17  one  fails  to  find 
anything  that  can  be  called  an  anti-Roman ' '  party. 
By  "  party  "  we  mean  here  a  nucleus  of  organisation 
with  a  programme  or  "  platform  "  of  its  own  to- 
wards the  accomplishment  of  which  it  bends  its 
chief  efforts.  In  that  sense,  there  was  no  party  in 
Christendom  which  aimed  at  the  overthrow  of  the 
papal  system. 

On  the  other  hand  it  might  be  said  that  there  was 
no  great  public  interest  in  Europe  which  was  not 
more  or  less  directly  threatened  by  the  papacy  and 
likely,  therefore,  at  any  inopportune  moment,  by 
some  slip  in  the  papal  policy  or  even  by  the  mere 


2/6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

insistence  of  the  papacy  upon  some  point  it  could 
not  give  up,  to  be  turned  from  apparent  friendliness 
to  open  opposition.  First  among  these  public  in- 
terests was  the  principle  of  nationality.  The  papacy 
had,  as  we  have  seen,  apparently  adjusted  itself  to 
this  opposition,  but  this  adjustment  was  obviously 
unstable.  How  great  a  strain  would  it  bear  ?  To 
what  lengths  of  concession  could  the  papacy  afford 
to  go  in  recognising  the  right  of  kings  to  manage 
the  affairs  of  their  kingdoms  without  interference  ? 
Were  there  questions  of  religion,  or  of  public  morals 
so  obviously  beyond  the  sphere  of  temporal  control, 
that  any  conceivable  papacy  must  cling  to  the  right 
of  final  judgment  in  them  or  go  to  the  wall  ?  When 
in  the  year  1341  the  Emperor  Ludwig  the  Bavarian, 
had  claimed  for  himself  the  divine  right  to  declare 
a  certain  princess  divorced  from  an  inconvenient  hus- 
band, that  he  might  marry  her  to  his  son  and  bring 
her  dowry  to  increase  the  Bavarian  estates,  there 
was  an  almost  universal  cry  of  horror  at  this  assault 
upon  a  sacred  prerogative  of  the  Church.  How 
would  it  be  now,  two  hundred  years  later,  if  a  king, 
let  us  say  of  England,  should  find  it  convenient  to 
divorce  a  wife  and  marry  another  for  no  reason  but 
that  he  willed  it  so  ?  Could  the  papacy  afford  to 
pay  the  price  of  acquiescence,  or  could  it  better 
afford  to  lose  for  ever  the  allegiance  of  England  ? 
That  was  the  kind  of  question  presented  to  the 
papacy  from  the  side  of  the  national  states. 

So  again  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  advancing 
thought  of  the  day ; — how  far  could  the  papacy  safely 
go  in  meeting  this  advance  ?     Men  were  moving  on 


I5I9]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    277 

step  by  step  from  one  audacious  thought  to  another, 
until  it  was  beginning  to  seem  as  if  there  were  no 
limit  to  the  speculation  of  this  awakened  human 
spirit.  The  Church  had  grown  great  upon  a  system 
of  thought  in  which  the  institution,  the  established 
order,  the  class,  the  tradition,  had  been  everything, 
and  the  individual  had  been  nothing.  It  had  been 
a  man's  first  duty,  not  to  have  ideas  of  his  own,  but 
to  take  those  which  were  offered  to  him  by  the 
highest  prevailing  authority.  So  far  all  opposition 
to  this  method  of  thought  had  been  effectually  sil- 
enced. John  Hus  had  declared  that  the  essence  of 
the  Church  lay  in  its  being  the  assembly  of  believers 
acknowledging  Christ  alone  as  its  head.  Hus  had 
been  disposed  of,  and  again  the  papacy  had  risen 
triumphant.  The  same  men  who  had  pressed  most 
eagerly  the  condemnation  of  Hus  were  at  that  mo- 
ment aiding  his  cause  by  putting  forward  a  theory  of 
church  life  which  thrust  the  papacy  into  the  back- 
ground and  would  have  brought  into  its  place  a 
legislature  of  national  churches  as  the  true  expres- 
sion of  the  will  of  Western  Christendom.  That  op- 
position too  had  been  overcome. 

But  now  a  more  subtle  development  of  individual- 
ism was  beginning  to  make  itself  felt.  The  Church 
had  thus  far  succeeded  in  keeping  itself  before  the 
world  as  the  one  sole  and  sufficient  medium  of  salva- 
tion for  sinful  man.  It  had  developed  a  vast  and  im- 
posing system  of  mediation  between  man  and  God 
by  its  priesthood,  its  ceremonies,  its  philosophy  of 
morals,  and  its  elaborately  conducted  methods  of 
bookkeeping  with  the  consciences  of  the  faithful. 


278  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

Indeed,  so  elaborate  had  this  soul-saving  machinery 
become  that  the  wear  and  tear  of  it  threatened  the 
durability  of  its  parts.  An  immense  proportion  of 
its  energy  had  to  be  devoted  to  keeping  the  system 
going.  What  now  would  happen  if  somehow  it 
should  be  made  clear  to  the  Christian  conscience 
that  there  was  a  shorter  way  to  salvation,  a  more 
direct,  a  less  expensive,  and,  more  than  all,  a  better- 
established  way  ?  How  far  would  the  Church  dare 
to  carry  its  policy  of  going  half  way  toward  such  an 
idea  as  that  ? 

The  test  upon  this  point  came  in  the  revival  of 
all  that  group  of  notions  which,  for  lack  of  a  better 
term,  we  express  by  the  word  "  Augustinianism." 
Setting  aside  all  refinements  of  theology  for  the 
moment,  the  word  Augustinian  represents  to  us  the 
conception  of  the  individual  human  soul  as  a  sinful 
thing,  thrown  out  in  all  its  nakedness  and  isolation 
upon  an  angry  sea  of  .retribution,  from  which  nothing 
can  save  it  but  the  arbitrary  action  of  the  grace  of 
God.  Here  was  individualism  indeed!  We  have 
seen  how  the  Church  had  got  on  with  the  aesthetic 
individualism  of  the  Renaissance — with  its  sham 
heathenism,  its  theatrical  exploiting  of  antiquity  to 
justify  a  license  which  affronted  all  true  Christian 
self-respect,  and  yet,  after  all,  its  readiness  to  con- 
form itself  to  all  existing  forms  of  social  and  religious 
organisation.  From  such  individualism  as  this  the 
Church  had  little  direct  injury  to  fear.  It  laughed 
with  it  and  at  it  and  used  it  for  its  purposes.  Pog- 
gio  Bracciolini,  the  most  foul-mouthed  blackguard 
of  the  second  generation  of  Italian  Humanists,  spent 


1519]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    279 

his  life  as  papal  secretary  without  fear  and  without 
reproach. 

Strange  collocation  of  ideas,  that  the  same  im- 
pulse which  drove  these  unchecked  scoffers  into  an 
aesthetic  defiance  of  literary  tradition  should  have 
forced  Luther  and  Calvin  into  a  death-struggle  with 
the  whole  existing  church  order !  The  Church  had 
tolerated  the  individualism  of  taste;  how  far  could 
it  tolerate  the  individualism  of  the  soul  ?  The  one 
had  declared  that  the  salvation  of  the  human  mind 
was  to  be  found  by  going  back  to  the  unfailing 
sources  of  culture  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics. 
The  other  was  to  declare  that  the  only  salvation  of 
the  soul  was  to  be  found  by  overleaping  all  the  vast 
accumulation  of  forms  and  traditions  of  the  past 
thousand  years  and  going  straight  back  to  the  early 
proclamations  of  the  divine  grace  through  faith  in 
Christ  alone. 

While  Erasmus  was  studying,  writing,  planning, 
and  travelling,  with  Louvain  as  the  centre  of  his 
manifold  activities,  the  great  assault  was  gathering 
its  force  in  a  quarter  of  the  world  from  which  it 
might  least  have  been  expected.  The  north  of 
Germany  lay  almost  entirely  beyond  the  circle  of 
vision  of  Erasmus  and  such  as  he.  The  Universities 
of  Leipzig  and  Erfurt,  the  most  important  of  the 
Saxon  schools,  had  thus  far  contributed  little  to  the 
advance  of  general  culture.  They  were  still  mainly 
under  the  influence  of  the  scholastic  traditions, 
guided  by  such  men  as  those  who  had  been  made 
the  butts  of  the  Epistolce  obscurorum  virorum.     The 


28o  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

University  of  Wittenberg,  founded  in  1502  by  the 
Elector  Frederic  of  Saxony,  was  just  in  time  to  gain 
for  its  chairs  some  of  the  first-fruits  of  the  revived 
classical  spirit,  which  men  like  ReuchUn  and  Rudolf 
Agricola  had  imported  into  Germany  from  the  Italian 
fountainhead.  The  call  of  Martin  Luther  in  1508 
from  the  Augustinian  cloister  at  Erfurt  to  a  profess- 
orship of  theology  at  Wittenberg,  while  it  cannot 
be  described  as  a  demonstration  in  favour  of  the 
New  Learning,  brought  a  young  man  into  active 
professional  work  who  was  already  familiar  with  the 
new  spirit  of  study  and  who  was  likely  to  apply  it 
to  his  theological  teaching,  without  being  seduced 
by  its  aesthetic  charm.  The  invitation  of  Philip 
Melanchthon  four  years  later  to  teach  Greek  was  a 
more  pronounced  declaration  that  Wittenberg  was 
to  look  forward  and  not  back  in  setting  the  tone  of 
its  instruction.  Melanchthon  was  a  promising  youth 
of  twenty-one,  a  relative  and  pupil  of  Reuchlin  and 
recommended  by  him  for  this  place.  He  was  al- 
ready well  known  as  an  accomplished  Grecian,  an 
amiable,  but  decided  personality,  destined  to  be 
through  a  lifetime  of  contention  the  balance-wheel 
of  the  Lutheran  party. 

It  cannot  be  our  purpose  to  rehearse  here  the 
familiar  story  of  Luther's  early  career.  Friends  and 
enemies  alike  have  done  their  utmost  to  set  before 
us  the  engaging  but  often  mysterious  personality  of 
the  man.  Our  only  interest  can  be  to  review  very 
briefly  such  aspects  of  his  development  as  may  serve 
to  illustrate  the  similarities  and  the  differences  be- 
tween his  course  and  that  of  Erasmus  and  thus  pre- 


PHILIP  MELANCHTHON. 

FROM  THE  OHAWINQ  BY  HOLBEIN,  IN  WINDSOR  CASTLE. 


1519]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    281 

pare  us  to  understand  the  connection  of  the  latter 
with  the  reform  movement  of  Luther.  If  our  earlier 
judgments  as  to  the  youth  of  Erasmus  are  correct 
we  shall  have  to  believe  that  Luther's  years  of  ap- 
prenticeship were  far  more  truly  years  of  hardship 
and  struggle  than  were  his.  Poverty,  stern  dis- 
cipline, and  unsatisfied  desire  left  their  lifelong 
marks  upon  a  physical  constitution  none  too  strong, 
but  could  not  crush  the  inherent  cheerfulness  and 
courage  which  proved  his  dominant  characteristics. 

We  seek  in  vain  through  the  record  of  Luther's 
earlier  years  for  indications  of  that  stormy,  passion- 
ate zeal  for  improvement  in  the  conditions  about 
him  which  almost  any  student  of  the  later  reform 
would  suppose  to  be  the  moving  impulse  of  his 
character.  Conformity  to  the  demands  of  his  im- 
mediate surroundings  is  as  marked  a  trait  with  him 
as  were  resistance  and  restlessness  with  Erasmus. 
He  goes  and  does  as  he  is  bidden.  He  enters  a  mon- 
astery of  his  own  free  will  and  conforms  with  pain- 
ful exactness  to  the  requirements  of  the  rule.  Even 
long  after  he  has  begun  to  lead  the  fight  against 
the  limitations  of  the  existing  order,  he  continues  to 
wear  the  dress  and  to  live  in  the  cloister  of  the  local 
Augustinians.  The  impulse  to  the  Lutheran  re- 
form cannot,  therefore,  be  found  in  any  restless  im- 
patience of  personal  limitation  on  Luther's  part.  It 
must  be  sought  in  some  great,  overpowering  convic- 
tion which  drove  him  out  of  the  attitude  of  con- 
formity into  the  attitude  of  resistance. 

This  overmastering  impulse  came  in  the  form  of 
that   Augustinian    proposition    we   were   just   now 


282  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

examining — the  proposition  that  the  salvation,  or, 
better  still,  the  justification,  of  a  man's  soul  was  to 
come,  not  through  any  institution,  nor  through  the 
due  performance  of  anything  whatever,  but  through 
the  direct  act  of  the  grace  of  God,  and,  furthermore, 
that  the  only  condition  of  receiving  such  grace  was 
an  honest  opening  of  the  soul  to  its  action, — or,  in 
theological  language,  "  faith."  Luther  was  not  a 
great  "  theologian,"  as  that  word  was  used,  in 
reverence  by  some  and  in  ridicule  by  others.  He 
had  not  worked  himself  out  into  clearness  by  a 
scholastic  process,  and  whenever  he  tried  to  defend 
himself  by  scholastic  methods,  he  was  almost  sure 
to  confuse  himself  in  contradictions  and  exaggera- 
tions. His  clearness  of  vision  came  rather  by  an 
indefinable  process  of  revelation  and  self-realisation, 
and  then  it  became  his  life-problem  to  interpret  to 
others  what  had  brought  such  abundant  illumination 
and  satisfaction  to  himself.  The  boldness  of  Luther 
was  not  that  of  a  man  defiant  by  nature,  who  en- 
joys the  game  of  give  and  take,  but  rather  that  of  a 
man  who  puts  off  the  moment  of  his  attack  until  he 
can  do  so  no  longer,  and  then  lets  himself  go,  driven 
from  behind,  as  it  were,  by  a  will  greater  than  his 
own  and  against  which  he  is  powerless. 

With  a  nature  and  a  method  like  this  Erasmus 
could  never  have  had  much  sympathy.  Compare 
their  two  views  of  Italy.  We  have  seen  Erasmus 
seeking  there  the  rewards  of  scholarship,  cultivating 
the  society  of  learned  men,  playing  the  role  of  the 
famous  scholar  himself,  making  himself  acceptable 
to  the  powers  that  were,  getting  out  of  Italy  what 


I5I9]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    283 

he  could — then  coming  away  and  letting  all  the  shafts 
of  his  biting  satire  play  upon  this  society  where  he 
has  been  feeling  himself  at  home.  He  could  eat 
the  bread  and  take  the  pay  of  Aldus,  and  then  hold 
him  up  to  the  laughter  of  the  world. 

Luther  went  to  Italy  at  almost  the  same  time  on 
an  errand  from  the  Saxon  Augustinians  to  the  gen- 
eral chapter  at  Rome.  He  travelled  as  a  monk,  stop- 
ping at  the  houses  of  his  order  along  the  way.  At 
Rome  he  visited  all  the  shrines  of  the  saints,  like 
the  most  pious  of  pilgrims.  He  was  almost  sorry, 
he  says,  that  his  parents  were  living,  so  many  were 
the  advantages  offered  to  the  souls  of  the  departed 
at  these  altars  of  divine  grace.  He  performed  his 
commission,  went  back  to  his  place,  and  continued 
for  seven  years  longer  to  fulfil  his  duties  as  monk, 
priest,  and  teacher,  without  any  outward  show  of 
hostility  to  the  Roman  system.  Only  in  his  preach- 
ing and  writing,  one  can  trace  the  steady  advance 
of  confidence  in  his  guiding  principle  of  "  faith  "  as 
the  one  sufficient  guarantee  of  a  life  "  justified  "  or 
"  adjusted  "  to  the  divine  requirement.  He  did 
not  seek  the  fight ;  he  waited  in  his  place  until  the 
battle  sought  him  out  and  then  he  dared  not  refuse 
the  challenge. 

Compare  again  the  animating  principle  of  these 
two  men.  If  it  be  true  that  faith  alone  is  the  suffic- 
ient basis  of  all  justification  before  God,  then  it 
would  seem  to  follow  that  the  individual  will  has 
little  to  do  with  determining  the  fate  of  man  either 
here  or  hereafter.  Superficially  viewed,  this  doc- 
trine seems  to  place  man  within  the  circle  of  a  kind 


284  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

of  blind  fatalism.  Such  reproaches  have  been  heard 
ever  since  the  days  of  Augustine,  whenever  this 
subject  has  been  prominently  before  men's  minds. 
"  Has  Christianity  brought  us  out  of  the  old  fatal- 
ism of  the  Greeks  only  to  plunge  us  into  a  new 
fatalism,  as  hard,  but  not  as  picturesque,  as  the 
old  one  ?  "  was  asked  in  Augustine's  own  time. 
Nor  had  the  Augustinian  party  ever  failed  to  draw 
more  or  less  strictly  the  evident  conclusion  from  its 
own  premises.  It  had  always  insisted  that  the  will 
of  man  was  not  morally  free,  but  was  enslaved  by  a 
certain  principle  of  evil,  which  had  entered  into  man 
with  the  "  fall  of  Adam  "  and  been  transmitted  from 
father  to  son  ever  since. 

Now  the  Church  had  always  regarded  Augustine 
as  one  of  its  greatest  ornaments.  He  was  one  of 
the  "  four  Fathers  "  upon  whom,  as  upon  four  pil- 
lars, rested  its  majestic  structure.  Yet  in  practice, 
the  Church  had  never  lived  up  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  enslaved  will.  When,  in  the  ninth  century,  the 
Saxon  Gottschalk,  spiritual  progenitor  of  the  Saxon 
Luther,  had  turned  his  unpractised  logic  upon  this 
subject  and  had  worked  out  to  a  conclusion  the 
doctrine  of  a  double  predestination,  the  Church, 
through  its  ablest  representative,  Hincmar  of 
Rheims,  had  promptly  flogged  him  and  shut  him 
up  for  life  where  he  would  do  no  harm.  So  far  as 
the  Church  had  ever  formulated  its  views  on  the 
matter,  it  had  been  "  Semi-Pelagian."  It  recog- 
nised in  human  justification  both  the  grace  of  God 
and  the  will  of  man,  but  did  not  draw  with  absolute 
clearness  a  conclusion  as  to  the  preponderance  of 


1519]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    285 

one  over  the  other.  In  fact  the  Church  had  done 
something  better  than  to  speculate.  It  had  acted. 
It  had  evolved  a  marvellous  system  of  justifying 
agencies,  administered  by  itself,  and  had  said  to  its 
members,  in  practice  if  not  in  theory,  "  Do  these 
things  and  you  shall  be  saved."  While  this  excel- 
lent machinery  worked,  there  was  obviously  no  oc- 
casion for  any  good  Christian  to  worry  about  the 
conditions  of  justification,  and  in  fact,  from  the 
ninth  to  the  fifteenth  century,  the  Augustinian 
doctrines  are  not  once  brought  prominently  before 
the  world  for  discussion.  It  was  only  when  men 
began  once  more  to  doubt  whether  the  church 
method  of  doing  specific  things  and  getting  certifi- 
cates for  them  was,  after  all,  the  only  way,  or  even 
the  best  way,  to  find  one's  adjustment  with  God, 
that  this  whole  group  of  subjects  began,  once  more, 
to  demand  their  attention.  The  doctrine  of  the 
enslaved  will,  narrow  and  revolting  though  it  may 
seem  to  the  larger  thought  of  our  time,  was  the 
opening  gate  through  which  a  way  might  be  found 
into  that  very  same  largeness  of  view.  The  world 
learns  slowly  and  the  dim  vision  of  to-day  becomes 
the  flooding  glory  of  a  newly  risen  to-morrow. 

Where  should  we  expect  to  find  Erasmus,  as  we 
have  been  making  acquaintance  with  him  to  the 
year  15 18,  on  this  great  new  question  of  human 
justification  ?  Our  answer  must  follow  two  main 
lines.  First,  as  to  the  general  notion  of  the  free- 
dom of  the  will,  we  may  fairly  conclude  from  all  his 
moral  teaching  up  to  that  time,  that  the  idea  of 
Luther  in  itself  would  be  most  repugnant  to  him. 


286  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

The  whole  tone  of  the  Enchiridion,  for  example,  is 
to  emphasise  the  function  of  the  individual  con- 
science in  determining  action.  The  call  to  duty  is 
imperative ;  the  assumption  is  that  man  can  do  what 
he  ought  to  do.  The  freedom  of  the  will  in  human 
action  is  so  completely  assumed  that  there  is  no 
need  of  discussing  it.  The  ultimate  appeal  is  never 
to  any  outside  power.  If,  on  the  one  hand,  Eras- 
mus avoids  all  final  reference  to  an  ecclesiastical 
authority,  so,  on  the  other  hand,  he  equally  avoids 
reference  to  a  theological  "  grace  of  God  "  which  is 
to  do  our  moral  work  for  us.  The  same  impression 
comes  from  a  study  of  the  Christian  Prince. 
The  prince  is  a  "  good  prince,"  not  because  he  is  a 
special  instrument  in  the  hand  of  God,  nor  because 
he  is  a  faithful  servant  of  any  church  authority,  but 
because  he  does  his  duty  as  a  man,  in  the  station  to 
which  he  is  called.  He  ought  to  do  this  thing  or 
that  simply  because  it  is  the  right  and  the  wise  thing 
to  do,  tending  most  directly  toward  the  welfare  of 
his  subjects  and  the  interest  of  the  prince  himself. 
The  Christian  state  is  such  because  it  tends  toward 
a  realisation  of  the  teaching  of  Christ,  not  because 
it  corresponds  to  any  abstract  ideal  set  for  it  by  the 
church  power  or  by  any  direct  working  of  the  divine 
agency. 

Our  second  point  of  view  is  thus  already  sug- 
gested. In  so  far  as  the  Lutheran  position  dealt 
with  man  as  an  individual  being,  responsible  directly 
to  God,  without  the  need  of  any  intervening  human 
agency,  in  so  far  it  could  not  fail  to  command  the 
sympathy  of  whatever   was  most  sound  and  most 


I5I9]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    287 

sincere  in  the  thought  of  Erasmus.  His  moral  ap- 
peal throughout  is  completely  free  from  any  really 
convincing  reference  to  a  highest  church  tribunal, 
whose  decisions  must  be  final.  One  can  find  plenty 
of  passages  in  which  he  has,  even  before  15 18,  ex- 
pressed his  respect  for  the  papal  system;  but  it 
would  be  hard  to  think  of  any  one  of  these  as 
representing  his  really  deepest  convictions.  Either 
they  are  purely  conventional,  having  no  bearing 
upon  the  issue  of  the  Reformation,  or  they  are 
evident  "hedging/'  put  in  to  guard  their  author 
against  the  suspicion  of  having  gone  too  far  on  the 
way  of  criticism.  It  is  always  difficult  to  know 
which  of  his  selves  is  the  real  self;  but  wherever 
in  Erasmus'  moral  writing  we  seem  to  feel  the  ring 
of  a  sincere  emotion,  it  is  always  when  he  is  appeal- 
ing to  the  essential  manliness  of  man — never  when 
he  is  making  his  apologies  to  the  powers  that  be. 

Again,  it  was  plain,  once  for  all,  as  early  as  15 18, 
that  Erasmus  had  not  in  him  the  stuff  out  of  which 
great  leaders  of  men  in  critical  times  are  made.  No 
one  would  have  acknowledged  this  more  readily 
than  he,  and  nothing  could  have  been  farther  from 
the  line  of  his  ambition  than  such  leadership. 
Even  if  we  make  large  deductions  from  his  account 
of  the  great  positions  he  had  declined,  enough  re- 
mains to  make  us  quite  sure  that,  if  he  had  chosen, 
he  might  have  held  any  one  of  many  places,  which, 
by  their  very  importance,  would  have  given  him  an 
effective  leverage  upon  European  affairs.  Such  in- 
fluence lay  within  the  field  neither  of  his  gifts  nor  of 
his  desires.     Such  effect  as  he  might  have  upon  the 


288  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

course  of  events  must  come  through  the  natural 
channel  of  his  work  as  a  scholar  and  a  critic. 

The  difificulty  of  our  problem  is  greatly  increased 
by  the  almost  hopeless  complication  of  questions 
which  entered  into  that  one  great  demonstration  we 
call  the  Reformation.  Even  at  this  distance  of  time 
it  is  impossible,  without  resorting  to  some  rather 
large  generalisation,  to  say  in  a  single  phrase  what 
the  issue  of  the  Reformation  was.  Still  less,  of 
course,  was  such  clear  discrimination  possible  to  one 
who  stood,  as  Erasmus  did,  in  the  midst  of  these 
rapid  and  ever-shifting  and  often  conflicting  currents 
and  was  called  upon  to  say  just  where  his  standing- 
ground  was,  or  with  which  one  of  these  currents  he 
was  willing  to  drift. 

Luther  nailed  his  Theses  on  Indulgences  to  the 
door  of  the  Palace-Church  at  Wittenberg  on  the 
last  day  of  October  in  the  year  15 17.  When  and 
where  the  news  of  this  action  reached  Erasmus  we 
do  not  know.  It  is  impossible  that  it  can  have 
been  more  than  a  few  weeks  before  he,  in  common 
with  all  intelligent  persons,  had  read  this  first  pro- 
clamation of  a  war  that  was  to  be  to  the  death. 
The  Theses  attacked  indulgences,  but  these  were 
only  the  outward  form  under  which  the  whole  theory 
of  a  mechanical  salvation  was  expressed.  If  the 
indulgence  was  wrong,  not  merely  in  practice,  but 
in  theory  as  well,  then  the  whole  church  system,  in 
so  far  as  it  was  a  soul-saving  apparatus,  was  wrong 
too.  Doubtless  there  was  room  for  infinite  refine- 
ments upon  this  simple  deduction.  The  same  thesis 
about  indulgences  had  been  put  forth  many  times 


1519]    Beginnings  of  the  Reformation    289 

before.  Men  had  come  to  the  same  conclusions  by 
many  different  roads ;  but  never  yet  had  any  one 
person  travelled  so  many  of  these  roads.  In  Luther 
there  spoke  the  monk,  who  had  tried  faithfully  the 
method  of  conformity ;  the  priest,  who  had  gone 
directly  to  the  souls  of  men  with  the  consolations 
of  religious  hope ;  the  scholar,  who  had  caught  the 
gleam  of  that  new  light  of  reason  which  was  chang- 
ing the  whole  aspect  of  human  thought ;  the  patriot, 
who  saw  his  fellow-countrymen  victimised  by  a  vast 
foreign  oppression;  and  finally  the  man,  who  had 
worked  through  the  awful  problem  of  human  sinful- 
ness until  he  saw  it  clearly  solved  by  reference  to 
the  common  inheritance  of  humanity. 

That  is  why  Luther's  appeal  was  heard.  Every- 
one to  whom  it  came  found  in  it  some  echo  of  his 
own  experience.  From  every  part  of  Europe  and 
from  every  human  interest  came  almost  immediately 
a  response  which  showed  that  a  voice  had  been  heard 
for  which  men  had  long  been  waiting.  The  Theses 
were  a  temperate  document.  The  tone  of  impa- 
tience, even  of  violence,  that  was  to  mark  so  much  of 
Luther's  later  writing,  was  here  as  yet  only  suggested 
by  a  rare  decision  and  certainty  of  utterance.  Al- 
ready Luther  spoke  as  one  who  could  not  help  it. 
At  last  the  conflict  had  forced  itself  upon  him,  and 
for  him,  being  the  man  he  was,  there  was  no  alter- 
native. The  form  of  the  Theses  was  that  of  a  chal- 
lenge to  discussion.  Luther  put  himself  forward  as  a 
learner,  who  was  prepared  to  change  his  view  when- 
ever a  better  one  should  appear.  The  replies.in  so  far 
as  they  were  hostile,  simply  continued  the  discussion. 


290  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

Probably  there  was  no  other  man  in  Europe  from 
whom  a  decisive  word  in  his  favour  would  have  been 
so  welcome  to  Luther  as  a  word  at  this  moment 
from  Erasmus.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  was  there 
a  champion  whom  the  existing  system  would  more 
gladly  have  seen  on  its  side.  The  word  was  not 
spoken,  but  neither  did  Erasmus  array  himself  as 
yet  frankly  in  opposition  to  Luther.  Indeed  we 
have  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  issue  in  all  its 
magnitude  was  clearly  present  to  his  thought. 

Some  things  he  saw  only  too  clearly.  His  clever, 
analytical  mind  perceived  that  usages  and  forms 
might  in  themselves  be  innocent  or  even  helpful, 
while  the  wrong  use  of  them  was  harmful  in  the 
extreme.  So  his  instinct  was  in  every  case  to  say: 
Let  us  amend  the  wrong  use  of  these  things,  but  let 
us  not  disturb  the  innocent  and  helpful  practice 
itself.  Whatever  subject  he  touched  called  out  at 
once  this  overfine  discriminating  power.  He  drew 
a  picture  of  the  thing  he  wanted  to  express  and  be- 
lieved himself  to  be  heightening  the  effect  of  this 
picture  when  he  refined  upon  it  until  its  outlines 
became  obscured  and  the  very  effect  he  had  aimed 
at  was  defeated.  The  art  of  fine  distinctions  was 
an  admirable  one.  The  question  of  the  hour,  how- 
ever, was  not  to  be  solved  in  that  way.  The  time 
had  come  when  men  were  going  down  deep  below 
these  refinements  and  were  about  to  ask  the  fatal 
question :  whether  forms  and  systems  which  could 
not  bear  the  strain  of  daily  use  by  plain  human 
nature  without  gross  abuses,  were  not  better  re- 
formed out  of  existence  once  for  all.     Erasmus  said, 


I5I9]  Correspondence  291 

"  Be  good  and  all  these  evils  will  vanish."  Quite 
true,  but  if  all  men  were  good  there  would  be  no 
need  of  institutions  at  all.  The  question  was, 
whether  the  experiment  had  not  been  tried  long 
enough,  and  that  was  the  issue  which  Erasmus 
seems  not  to  have  grasped. 

For  the  moment  the  discussion  turned  on  the 
question  of  indulgences.  On  this  subject  Erasmus 
had  made  no  utterance  which  could  be  understood 
as  committing  him  on  the  theory  as  a  whole.  In 
the  Praise  of  Folly  he  had  ridiculed  the  grosser  ab- 
surdities of  the  practice,  especially  the  counting  up 
of  the  days  and  years  of  redemption  from  Purga- 
tory, as  if  salvation  were  a  thing  of  the  multiplica- 
tion-table. The  teaching  of  the  Enchiridion  was 
hopelessly  against  any  such  conception  of  moral 
regeneration.  Anyone  who  had  read  Erasmus  could 
not  have  a  moment's  doubt  that  the  system  of  in- 
dulgences, as  it  was  practised  throughout  Europe, 
must  have  been  repulsive  to  him  in  the  extreme. 
The  idea  that  Erasmus  could  ever  have  invested  a 
penny  in  such  traffic  for  the  advantage  of  his  own 
soul  or  that  of  anyone  dear  to  him,  was  grotesquely 
absurd.  Moreover  the  circumstances  of  that  special 
sale  of  indulgences  in  Germany  which  called  out 
the  wrath  of  Luther  were  such  as  must  have  seemed 
equally  outrageous  to  Erasmus.  The  barefaced 
openness  with  which  the  Prince  Elector  of  Mainz 
had  lent  himself  to  the  papal  exaction,  on  condition 
that  half  the  plunder  should  go  into  his  own  pocket 
to  pay  for  the  pallium  which  the  papacy  itself  had 
just  granted  him,  brought  out  into  clearest  relief  the 


292  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

purely  mercantile  nature  of  the  whole  transaction. 
It  required  all  the  hair-splitting  of  all  the  schools  to 
carry  a  man  through  the  stages  of  that  bargain  and 
leave  him  at  last  with  any  tenderness  whatever  for 
the  system  that  made  it  possible.  Yet  this  was 
precisely  the  feat  which  Erasmus  was  apparently  to 
perform. 

We  gain  a  glimpse  at  the  working  of  his  mind  on 
this  subject  in  the  letter  to  Volzius,  called  forth  by 
criticism  of  the  Enchiridion,  and  dated  in  August, 
1518': 

**  If  anyone  finds  fault  with  the  preposterous  opinion 
of  the  vulgar,  which  gives  to  the  highest  virtues  the  low- 
est place  and  vice  versa  and  is  specially  shocked  by  un- 
important evils  and  the  reverse,  then  one  is  straightway 
called  to  account  as  if  one  favoured  those  evils  which 
seem  to  him  less  than  some  other  evil ;  or  as  if  he  were 
condemning  certain  good  actions  because  he  thinks 
others  are  even  better.  So  if  one  teaches  that  it  is  safer 
to  trust  in  good  deeds  than  in  the  papal  pardons,  he  is 
not  condemning  those  pardons,  but  is  giving  the  prefer- 
ence to  what  is  more  certainly  in  accord  with  the  teach- 
ing of  Christ.  So  also,  if  one  thinks  that  they  act  more 
wisely  who  stay  at  home  and  look  after  their  wives  and 
children,  than  they  who  go  running  about  to  Rome  or 
Jerusalem  or  Compostella,  and  that  the  money  wasted  in 
long  and  dangerous  journeys  were  much  more  piously 
spent  upon  the  worthy  and  honest  poor,  one  is  not  con- 
demning the  pious  impulse  of  those  persons,  but  is  only 
preferring  what  comes  nearer  to  true  piety.  In  truth  it 
is  not  a  fault  of  our  times  alone  to  attack  certain  evils  as 

>iii.',  343-E. 


1519]  Correspondence  293 

if  they  were  the  only  ones,  while  we  smooth  over,  as  if 
they  were  not  evils  at  all,  others  far  worse  than  those  we 
are  abusing." 

One  feels  here  an  allusion  to  that  overemphasis 
on  outward  organisation  which  was  to  be  Erasmus* 
great  objection  to  the  German  reform.  Instead  of 
this  he  would  have  the  true  value  of  the  institution 
so  clearly  brought  out  that  it  would  counteract  all 
tendency  to  abuse.  This  letter  was  one  of  the  last 
pieces  of  Erasmus'  writing  at  Basel  before  the  long 
illness  of  which  he  speaks  in  the  letter  about  his 
journey  to  Louvain.  He  had  spent  the  year  1518 
chiefly  at  Basel  in  tireless  industry.  He  arrived  at 
Louvain  only,  as  we  have  seen,  to  break  down  again. 
It  was  1 5 19  before  we  find  him  drawn  directly  into 
the  Lutheran  controversy. 

The  letter  to  Volzius  just  quoted  was  printed  as  a 
preface  to  a  new  edition  of  the  Enchiridion  in  15 18. 
The  first  step  in  the  correspondence  with  Luther 
was  taken  by  Luther  himself  in  March,  1519,  and 
seems  to  have  been  suggested  by  the  very  passage 
we  have  here  made  use  of  to  show  Erasmus'  feeling 
about  indulgences.  Luther's  tone  in  this  first  letter 
is  eminently  characteristic  of  his  attitude  during 
these  early  years  of  his  public  activity.  It  is  modest 
and  self-depreciating  to  a  degree.  Words  fail  him 
to  express  his  admiration  for  the  great  scholar.  It 
is  really  monstrous  that  they  should  not  know  each 
other,  when  he  has  so  long  been  worshipping  in 
silence.' 

'  i.,  423-D. 


294  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

"  Who  is  there  whose  inmost  being  is  not  filled  by  Eras- 
mus ?  Who  is  not  being  taught  by  Erasmus  ?  In  whom 
does  not  Erasmus  reign  ? — I  mean,  of  course,  among 
those  who  have  a  true  love  of  letters.  For  I  am  glad 
enough  and  I  reckon  it  among  the  gifts  of  Christ,  that 
there  are  many  who  do  not  approve  of  you.  By  this  test 
I  discern  the  gifts  of  a  loving  from  those  of  an  angry 
God,  and  I  congratulate  you  that  while  you  are  most 
acceptable  to  all  good  men,  you  are  equally  disliked  by 
those  who  would  like  to  be  thought  the  only  great  ones 
and  the  only  ones  to  be  accepted.  But  here  am  I, 
clumsy  fellow,  approaching  you  thus  familiarly  with  un- 
washed hands  and  without  formal  phrases  of  reverence 
and  honour,  as  one  unknown  person  might  address 
another.  I  beg  you  by  your  kind  nature,  lay  this  to 
the  account  of  my  affection  or  my  inexperience.  In 
truth,  I  whose  life  has  been  passed  among  the  school- 
men, have  not  so  much  as  learned  how  to  address  a  truly 
learned  man  by  letter.  Otherwise,  how  I  would  have 
wearied  you  already  with  epistles  !  I  would  not  have 
suffered  you  alone  to  speak  to  me  all  this  time  in  my 
study.  Now,  since  I  have  learned  from  Fabricius  Capito 
that  my  name  is  known  to  you  through  my  trifles  about 
indulgences  and  learned  also  from  your  most  recent 
preface  to  the  Enchiridion,  that  my  notions  have  not 
only  been  seen,  but  have  also  been  accepted  by  you,  I 
am  compelled  to  acknowledge,  even  though  in  barbarous 
style,  your  noble  spirit,  which  enriches  me  and  all  men. 
.  .  .  And  so,  my  dear  and  amiable  Erasmus,  if  you 
shall  see  fit,  recognise  this  your  younger  brother  in 
Christ,  indeed  a  most  devoted  admirer  £>(  yours,  but 
worthy,  in  his  ignorance,  only  to  be  buried  in  his  cor- 
ner and  to  be  unknown  to  the  same  sky  and  sun  with 
you." 


1519]  Correspondence  295 

The  letter  closes  with  an  affectionate  eulogy  of 
Philip  Melanchthon  as  the  indispensable  companion 
of  his  studies. 

There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  sincerity  of 
Luther's  attitude  at  this  critical  moment.  It  was 
quite  true  that  Erasmus  was  far  beyond  him  in 
scholarly  attainment  and  reputation.  It  was  true 
also  that  the  plain  meaning  of  Erasmus'  reference 
to  indulgences  in  the  preface  to  the  Enchiridion 
was  directly  in  accord  with  Luther's  own  position 
in  the  Theses.  If  he  could  be  made  now,  in  some 
more  decided  manner,  to  commit  himself  to  Luther's 
cause,  it  would  be  a  great  point  gained  for  reform. 

Erasmus  gave  himself  two  months  before  answer- 
ing these  first  advances  of  Luther.  His  reply  is  what 
we  might,  from  our  previous  knowledge,  have  pre- 
dicted.    The  letter  appeals  to  him  strongly  ' : 

"  Beloved  brother  in  Christ,  your  letter  was  most  ac- 
ceptable, at  once  showing  the  subtilty  of  your  genius 
and  breathing  the  very  spirit  of  Christ." 

Then  his  own  personality  comes  in  and  he  is  com- 
pletely absorbed  in  the  effect  of  Luther's  action 
upon  himself. 

"  I  have  no  words  to  tell  you  what  an  excitement  your 
books  have  raised  here.  Up  to  the  present  moment  the 
false  suspicion  cannot  be  torn  from  the  minds  of  these 
creatures  that  your  works  have  been  written  by  my  as- 
sistance and  that  I  am  the  standard-bearer  of  this  *  fac- 
tion '  as  they  call  it.     Some  think  that  a  handle  is  given 

•iii.',444-D 


296  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

them  for  attacking  sound  learning,  toward  which  they 
have  a  deadly  hatred  as  an  offence  against  Her  Theo- 
logical Majesty,  for  whom  they  care  vastly  more  than 
they  do  for  Christ, — and  also  for  quashing  me,  whom 
they  fancy  to  be  of  some  avail  in  encouraging  learning. 
"  The  whole  affair  is  carried  on  with  shoutings,  with 
insolent  cunning,  with  slander  and  trickery,  so  that  if 
I  had  not  seen  it — nay,  even  felt  it  myself,  I  would 
never  have  believed,  on  any  authority,  that  theologians 
could  be  so  insane.  You  might  suppose  it  was  a  regular 
plague  ;  and  yet  the  poison  of  this  evil  began  with  a  few 
and  crept  into  the  many,  so  that  now  a  great  part  of  this 
much  frequented  university  is  infected  with  this  poison- 
ous disease.  I  have  sworn  that  you  were  totally  un- 
known to  me,  that  I  had  not  yet  read  your  books,  and 
therefore  that  I  neither  approved  nor  disapproved  any- 
thing in  them.  I  only  advised  them  not  to  keep  bawl- 
ing out  so  hatefully  to  the  people  about  your  books, 
which  they  had  not  yet  read,  but  to  await  the  judgment 
of  those  whose  opinion  ought  to  have  most  weight.  I 
begged  them  to  consider  whether  it  was  well  to  abuse 
before  a  promiscuous  crowd  things  which  ought  more 
properly  to  be  refuted  in  books  or  discussed  by  learned 
men,  especially  as  there  was  but  one  opinion  as  to  the 
excellence  of  the  author's  life.  But  nothing  did  any 
good  ; — so  furious  are  they  in  their  underhanded  and 
scandalous  discussions." 

He,  Erasmus,  becomes  at  once  the  central  point 
in  his  ow^n  field  of  vision.  Luther  has  friends  in 
England,  even  some  in  Louvain. 

"  But  I  keep  myself,  so  far  as  I  can,  integrum  [shall 
we  say  *  uncompromised  '  ?]    in  order  that    1    may  the 


FRONTISPIECE  (ERASMUS  SEATED)  TO  "  ERASMI  OPERA," 
PUBLISHED  AT  LEYDEN,  1703. 


1519]  Correspondence  297 

better  serve  the  reviving  cause  of  letters  ;  and  I  think  a 
well-mannered  reserve  will  accomplish  more  than  vio- 
lence, etc.  We  ought  to  keep  an  even  temper,  lest  it 
be  spoiled  by  anger,  hatred,  or  vainglory  ;  for  in  the 
very  midst  of  a  zeal  for  religion  these  things  are  apt  to 
be  lying  in  wait  for  us.  I  am  not  urging  you  to  do  all 
this,  but  just  to  keep  on  as  you  are  doing.  I  have 
glanced  over  {degustavt)  your  commentaries  on  the 
Psalms  ;  they  appeal  to  me  greatly  and  I  hope  they  will 
be  of  great  value." 

We  have  omitted  a  string  of  commonplaces  about 
moderation  and  gentleness,  which  must  have  helped 
to  make  this  letter  rather  cold  comfort  to  Luther. 
If  it  meant  anything  to  him,  it  meant  that  Erasmus 
really  agreed  with  his  views  on  indulgences  and  the 
state  of  the  Church  in  general,  but  was  already 
dreading  the  effect  of  putting  these  views  boldly 
and  clearly  before  the  world.  What  Luther  wanted 
in  the  spring  of  15 19  was  not  pious  exhortation  to 
keep  his  temper,  but  a  grip  of  the  hand  and  a  frank 
word  of  approval.  Whether  Erasmus  was  going  to 
have  a  bad  time  with  the  men  of  darkness  at  Lou- 
vain  could  not  interest  him.  The  question  was; 
would  Erasmus  stand  by  him, — yes  or  no  ?  and  so 
far  the  answer  was  not  encouraging.  To  one  who 
knew  the  kind  of  language  Erasmus  was  wont  to 
apply  to  his  opponents,  it  must  have  seemed  gro- 
tesquely out  of  place  for  him  to  exhort  Luther  to 
gentleness  of  speech. 

The  dread  of  being  charged  with  the  authorship 
of  Luther's  works  and  of  others  similar  in  their  pur- 
pose, seems  to  have  been  the  one  thing  uppermost 


298  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

in  the  mind  of  Erasmus  during  these  years  15 18  and 
1 5 19.  His  correspondence  is  full  of  it.  He  took 
pains,  in  a  fashion  which  he  had  never  before  shown, 
to  set  himself  right  with  all  the  great  persons  with 
whom  he  had  any  connection. 

The  earliest  in  the  group  of  apologetic  letters 
brought  out  by  the  charge  that  Luther  was  only 
expressing  Erasmus'  ideas  in  somewhat  bolder  form 
is  one  written  to  Cardinal  Wolsey  in  May,  1518.* 
Here  begin  the  phrases  afterwards  to  become  so 
familiar: 

"  Luther  is  as  unknown  to  me  as  he  is  to  anyone,  nor 
have  I  had  leisure  to  turn  over  his  books  except  here 
and  there  a  page  ; — not  that  I  shrank  from  the  work, 
but  that  other  occupations  left  me  no  time  for  it.  And 
yet  certain  persons,  as  I  hear,  are  saying  that  I  have 
been  helping  him.  If  he  has  written  well  I  deserve  no 
praise  ;  if  otherwise  I  merit  no  blame — since  in  all  his 
writings  not  so  much  as  one  jot  is  mine,  and  anyone 
can  prove  this  who  wishes  to  investigate  it.  The  man's 
way  of  life  is  approved  by  all,  and  this  is  no  slight  argu- 
ment in  his  favour,  that  his  character  is  so  sound  that 
not  even  enemies  can  find  anything  to  criticise.  But 
even  if  I  had  ever  so  much  time  for  reading  him  I  can- 
not take  upon  myself  to  pronounce  upon  the  writings  of 
so  great  a  man,  even  though  nowadays  boys  are  every- 
where, with  the  greatest  boldness,  declaring  this  to  be 
false  and  that  to  be  heretical.  At  one  time  indeed  I  was 
a  little  hard  upon  Luther,  fearing  that  some  cause  for 
enmity  against  sound  learning  might  be  given,  and  desir- 
ing not  to  see  that  cause  burdened  any  further.     For  I 

'  This  is  Leclerc's  date.     Stichart  prefers  Dec.  18,  1517. 


1519]  Correspondence  299 

could  not  help  seeing  how  much  enmity  would  be 
aroused  if  things  were  to  be  broken  up  from  which  a 
rich  harvest  was  being  reaped  by  priests  and  monks. 

"  There  appeared  first  quite  a  number  of  propositions 
about  papal  indulgences;  then  one  and  another  pamphlet 
about  confession  and  penance.  When  I  heard  that  cer- 
tain persons  were  eager  to  publish  these  I  seriously  ad- 
vised against  it,  lest  they  should  be  adding  to  the  enmity 
against  learning.  There  will  be  witnesses  of  this,  even 
men  who  wish  well  to  Luther.  Finally  there  came  a 
swarm  of  pamphlets  ;  no  one  saw  me  reading  them  ;  no 
one  heard  me  praising  them  or  not  praising  them.  For 
I  am  not  so  rash  as  to  approve  what  I  have  not  read,  nor 
such  a  trickster  as  to  condemn  what  I  know  nothing 
about, — though  this  is  nowadays  a  regular  practice  of 
those  who  ought  to  know  better.  Germany  has  some 
young  men  who  give  great  promise  of  learning  and  elo- 
quence, through  whose  work  I  predict  that  she  may 
some  day  have  cause  to  boast  as  England  is  now  boast- 
ing with  the  best  of  reasons.  Of  these  no  one  is  person- 
ally known  to  me  except  Eobanus,  Hutten,  and  Beatus. 
These  men  are  fighting  with  every  form  of  weapon 
against  the  enemies  of  the  languages  and  of  sound  learn- 
ing, which  all  good  men  are  favouring.  I  should  admit 
myself  that  their  freedom  of  speech  was  intolerable,  did 
I  not  know  in  what  shameful  fashion  they  are  annoyed 
both  in  public  and  in  private.  Their  opponents  allow 
themselves  in  public  preaching,  in  schools,  in  banquets, 
to  declaim  anything  they  please  in  the  most  hateful,  nay, 
in  the  most  treasonable  manner,  before  the  ignorant 
multitude,  yet  think  it  an  unbearable  thing  if  one  of 
these  scholars  dares  to  comment.  Why  !  the  very  bees 
have  stings  to  strike  with  when  they  are  hurt  and  flies 
have  teeth  to  defend  themselves  if   they  are  attacked. 


300  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

Whence  comes  this  new  race  of  gods  ?  They  make 
*  heretics  '  of  whom  they  will,  but  move  heaven  and  earth 
if  anyone  calls  them  slanderers.     ,     .     . 

"  I  am  in  favour  of  these  scholars  in  this  sense  :  that 
I  look  rather  to  their  virtues  than  to  their  vices.  And 
when  one  considers  how  soaked  in  vice  were  those 
men  who  in  Italy  and  France  gave  the  first  impulse  to 
the  revival  of  ancient  learning,  one  cannot  help  favour- 
ing these  men  of  ours  whose  characters  are  such  that 
their  theological  censors  would  do  well  to  imitate  them 
rather  than  abuse  them. 

"  Now  whatever  they  write  is  suspected  to  be  my 
work,  even  with  you  in  England,  if  only  men  of  affairs 
who  come  hither  from  there  are  telling  the  truth.  In- 
deed, I  confess  frankly  :  I  cannot  help  admiring  th'eir 
talent,  but  a  too  free  pen  I  approve  in  no  man.  First 
Hutten  sent  out  as  a  joke  his  Nemo  ;  everyone  knows 
the  argument  of  it  was  mere  folly,  but  the  Louvain  theo- 
logians kept  saying  it  was  my  work,  and  they  fancy 
themselves  more  sharp-sighted  than  Lynceus  himself. 
Then  came  the  Febris  [also  by  Hutten]  ;  that  was 
mine  too  !  though  the  whole  spirit  and  style  of  it  dif- 
fered from  mine.  Then  appeared  the  Oratio  of  Mosel- 
lanus  in  which  he  takes  the  part  of  the  three  languages 
against  these  tongue-lashers.  They  thought  to  make  me 
smart  for  it,  even  when  I  had  not  yet  heard  that  the 
Oratio  was  in  existence  ;  as  if  whatever  comes  into  the 
head  of  this  man  or  that  man  to  write,  I  must  be  ac- 
countable for  it  or  as  if  I  had  not  enough  to  do  to  defend 
what  I  have  written  myself.  They  are  Germans  ;  they 
are  young  men  ;  they  have  pens  ;  they  are  not  wanting 
in  ability  ;  nor  are  there  lacking  those  who  irritate  them 
by  their  hatred,  nor  those  who  spur  them  on,  and  then 
pour  cold  water  on  them. 


1519]  Correspondence  301 

"  All  these  I  have  warned  in  my  letters  to  keep  their 
freedom  within  bounds  ;  at  all  events  not  to  attack  the 
leading  men  of  the  Church,  lest  they  provoke  against 
learning  the  hostility  of  those  very  men  through  whose 
patronage  it  is  standing  up  against  its  enemies  and  thus 
burden  the  defenders  of  polite  letters  with  this  enmity. 
But  what  can  I  do  ?  I  can  warn,  but  I  cannot  compel. 
To  moderate  my  own  style  is  within  my  power,  but  not 
to  answer  for  another's  pen.  The  most  ridiculous  thing 
is  that  the  recent  work  of  the  bishop  of  Rochester  against 
Faber  is  ascribed  to  me,  whereas  the  difference  of  style 
is  as  great  as  I  am  far  removed  from  the  learning  of  that 
divine  prelate.  Why  !  there  were  some  who  charged 
More's  Utopia  upon  me !  whatever  appears  is  mine, 
willing  or  no.     .     .     . 

"  I  have  never  sent  forth  a  work,  and.  I  never  will, 
without  putting  my  name  to  it.  Some  time  ago  I  wrote 
for  amusement  my  Moria,  without  malice  though  per- 
haps with  more  than  enough  freedom  of  si)eech.  But  I 
have  always  taken  pains  that  nothing  should  go  forth 
from  me  which  could  corrupt  youth  by  its  obscenity,  or 
could  in  any  way  offend  religion,  or  give  rise  to  sedition 
or  party  violence,  or  make  a  single  black  line  upon  the 
good  name  of  another.  The  sweat  I  have  spent  up  to 
this  time  has  been  spent  in  aiding  solid  learning  and  in 
advancing  the  religion  of  Christ.  All  are  thanking  me 
for  it  on  every  hand,  excepting  a  very  few  theologians 
and  monks,  who  refuse  to  be  made  either  better  or 
more  learned.     .     .     . 

"  If  anyone  cares  to  make  the  trial  he  will  find  Eras- 
mus serving  the  See  of  Rome  with  his  whole  heart  and 
especially  Leo  the  tenth,  to  whose  piety  he  is  well 
aware  how  much  he  is  indebted." 

Precisely  the  same  tone  of  nervous  anxiety  about 


302  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

himself  appears  in  a  letter  to  Cardinal  Campeggio, 
the  papal  legate  in  England.'  He  assures  him  that, 
so  far  as  in  him  lay,  he  has  tried  to  maintain  the 
cause  of  Christ  and  the  Church.  Of  course  he  can- 
not please  everyone,  but  he  has  been  satisfied  with 
the  praise  of  the  best  men  from  Pope  Leo  down. 

"  But  see,"  he  cries,  "  the  perverse  and  ungrateful  ill- 
will  of  some  men.  They  do  not  trust  to  writings  and  ar- 
guments, but  attack  me  with  slanderous  tricks.  Whatever 
books  come  out  in  these  days,  in  which  anybody  is  too 
free  with  his  pranks,  they  put  it  upon  me.  There  ap- 
peared the  Nemo — for  that  is  the  name  of  a  certain  silly 
book  ;  they  charged  me  with  it  and  would  have  made 
out  their  case  if  the  angry  author  had  not  appeared  and 
claimed  his  work  for  himself.  There  came  out  certain 
foolish  letters  and  there  were  plenty  of  people  to  say  I 
had  helped  to  write  them.  Finally  there  came — I  know 
not  with  what  parentage— a  work  of  Martin  Luther,  an 
author  as  unknown  to  me  as  the  most  unknown  person 
in  the  world  ;  I  have  not  yet  read  the  book  through  and 
yet  at  the  very  beginning  they  kept  saying  it  was  my 
work,  the  truth  being  that  not  one  stroke  in  it  is  mine." 

He  begs  Campeggio  to  contradict  these  scandalous 
lies,  and  to  rest  assured  that  he  never  has  written 
and  never  will  write  books  of  this  sort.  The  card- 
inal's reply  was  as  friendly  and  reassuring  as  could 
be  wished,  but  may  interest  us  especially  because  it 
makes  no  direct  reference  to  the  Lutheran  move- 
ment. 

To  Pope  Leo  Erasmus  wrote  in  regard  to  the 
second  edition  of  his  New  Testament."     The  first 

'  iii.',  436.  *iii.',  490. 


I5I9]  Correspondence  303 

edition  had  been,  he  says,  well  received  by  all  but 
very  few.  His  description  of  these  few  critics  is 
highly  characteristic : 

"  Some  are  too  stupid  to  be  convinced  by  reasonable 
argument ;  some  too  conceited  to  be  willing  to  learn 
better  ;  some  too  obstinate  to  give  up  their  position,  bad 
though  it  be  ;  some  too  old  to  hope  ever  to  do  anything 
worth  doing  ;  some  so  ambitious  that  they  cannot  bear  to 
seem  to  have  been  ignorant  of  anything  ;  but  all  are  men  of 
such  a  kind,  that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  try  for  their 
approval.  Indeed  that  was  a  clever  saying  of  Seneca  : 
'  There  are  people  by  whom  it  is  better  to  be  abused 
than  praised.' 

"Among  these  people  there  is  scarce  one  who  has 
read  my  books.  They  were  afraid  for  their  power,  some 
even  for  their  gain,  if  the  world  should  begin  to  grow 
wiser.  What  they  themselves  really  think  I  know  not, 
but  they  try  to  make  the  uneducated  crowd  believe  that 
a  knowledge  of  the  languages  and  what  they  call  good 
letters  are  opposed  to  the  study  of  theology,  whereas 
there  is  no  science  to  which  they  are  a  greater  help  and 
adornment.  These  men,  born  under  the  wrath  of  the 
Muses  and  the  Graces,  are  fighting  ceaselessly  against 
learning,  which  in  these  our  days  is  just  rising  to  greater 
fruitfulness.  Their  chief  hope  of  victory  is  in  slander- 
ous trickery.  If  they  come  out  in  books  they  simply 
betray  their  folly  and  ignorance.  If  they  are  met  by 
reasoning,  the  evident  truth  overcomes  them  at  once. 
So  they  confine  themselves  to  making  an  uproar  with 
the  ignorant  mob  and  among  foolish  women,  who  are 
easy  to  impose  upon,  especially  under  the  pretext  of 
rehgion,  which  these  people  are  wonderfully  clever  in 
assuming.     They  put   forth   terrible  words — '  heresy  ! ' 


304  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

*  Antichrist  !  '  They  keep  declaring  that  the  Christian 
religion  is  in  danger  and  already  toppling  over,  and  pre- 
tend that  they  are  holding  it  up  on  their  shoulders  ;  and 
in  all  these  hateful  charges  they  mingle  the  names  of  the 
languages  and  of  polite  literature.  These  horrible  things, 
they  say,  have  sprung  from  *  poetry  ' — for  so  they  call 
whatever  belongs  to  elegant  learning — that  is,  whatever 
they  themselves  do  not  understand.  Such  nonsense  as 
this  they  do  not  hesitate  to  blather  out  in  public  sermons, 
and  then  ask  to  be  called  heralds  of  apostolic  doctrine  ! 
They  abuse  the  name  of  the  Roman  pontiff  and  of  the 
Roman  see,  a  thing  sacred  to  everyone,  as  it  ought  to  be. 
"  By  these  trickeries  they  are  preparing  to  assault  the 
cause  of  letters,  now  just  beginning  to  flourish,  and  also 
that  purified  theology  which  is  learning  to  know  once 
more  its  own  true  sources.  Nothing  is  left  untried  ; 
every  sort  of  calumny  is  thought  out  against  those  by 
whose  work  these  studies  seem  to  be  growing  ;  and 
among  these  they  reckon  me.  Now,  how  much  of  im- 
portance I  have  contributed  I  know  not,  but  surely  I 
have  striven  with  all  my  might  to  kindle  men  from  those 
chilling  argumentations  in  which  they  had  so  long  been 
frozen  up,  to  zeal  for  a  theology  which  should  be  at 
once  more  pure  and  more  serious.  And  that  this  labour 
has  so  far  not  been  in  vain  I  perceive  from  this,  that 
certain  persons  are  furious  against  me,  who  cannot  value 
anything  which  they  are  not  able  to  teach  and  are 
ashamed  to  learn.  But,  trusting  to  Christ  as  my  witness, 
whom  my  writings  above  all  would  guard,  to  the  judg- 
ment of  your  Holiness,  to  my  own  sense  of  right,  and 
the  approval  of  so  many  distinguished  men,  I  have 
always  disregarded  the  yelpings  of  these  people.  What- 
ever little  talent  I  have,  it  has  been,  once  for  all,  dedi- 
cated to  Christ  ;  it  shall  serve  his  glory  alone  ;  it  shall 


1519]  Correspondence  305 

serve  the  Roman  Church,  the  prince  of  that  Church,  but 
especially  your  Holiness,  to  whom  I  owe  more  than  my 
whole  duty. 

"  I  might,  if  I  had  listened  to  other  arguments,  have 
been  advanced  to  wealth  and  dignities  ;  I  can  prove  by 
the  most  solemn  testimony  that  what  I  am  saying  is  true. 
But  this  seemed  to  me  a  greater  reward  ;  I  preferred  to 
serve  the  glory  of  Christ,  rather  than  my  own.  From  a 
boy  I  have  made  it  my  care  never  to  write  anything  ir- 
religious or  scurrilous  or  against  authority.  Or  if  I 
formerly  chattered  away  a  little  too  freely,  after  the  habit 
of  youth,  certainly  nothing  becomes  my  present  age  but 
serious  and  holy  things.  No  one  was  ever  made  one 
hair  the  blacker  or  the  less  religious  by  my  writings  ;  no 
disturbance  has  ever  arisen  or  ever  shall  arise  on  my 
account.  No  malice  of  my  accusers  shall  ever  overcome 
this  fixed  determination  of  my  mind.  Let  others  see  to 
it  what  they  write  ;  I  am  not  judging  the  slave  of  another; 
let  every  man  stand  or  fall  to  his  own  master.  My  only 
grief  is  that  through  the  bitter  controversies  of  some 
persons  the  peace  of  learning  and  of  the  Christian  com- 
monwealth is  being  endangered." 

Here  he  seems  to  shift  his  ground  from  the  attacks 
of  the  men  of  darkness  to  the  Lutheran  "  tragedy." 

**  The  affair  seems  no  longer  to  be  conducted  with  the 
weapons  of  argument,  but  the  battle  rages  with  violent 
abuse  on  both  sides  ;  biting  pamphlets  are  the  weapons 
and  the  uproar  is  swelling  into  madness,  with  mutual 
maledictions.  There  is  no  one,  unless  he  were  more 
than  man,  who  does  not  sometimes  slip,  but  these 
human  lapses,  if  they  are  of  such  sort  that  we  cannot 
wink  at  them,  ought  to  be  corrected  with  Christian 
charity.     Now  they  are  turning  to  evil  even  that  which 


3o6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

is  rightly  spoken,  often  that  which  they  do  not  under- 
stand. With  bitter  words  they  make  raw  sores  which 
might  have  been  healed  by  Christian  gentleness  ;  they 
alienate  by  harshness  men  whom  they  might  have  kept 
by  kindness.  The  word  '  heresy '  is  straightway  in  their 
mouths,  if  at  any  point  they  differ  or  wish  to  seem  to 
differ.  If  anything  does  not  exactly  suit  them,  they  raise 
seditious  cries  among  the  rude  and  untaught  people. 
These  things,  springing  from  slight  beginnings,  have 
often  kindled  a  wide-spread  conflagration,  and  it  comes 
to  pass  that  an  evil,  overlooked  at  first  as  of  small  ac- 
count, increasing  little  by  little,  finally  bursts  forth  into 
a  serious  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  Christendom. 
Great  praise  is  due  to  those  excellent  kings  who  have 
quieted  the  very  beginnings  of  these  dissensions,  as 
Henry  VIII.  in  England,  and  Francis  I.  in  France.  In 
Germany,  because  that  country  is  divided  up  among  so 
many  little  kings,  the  same  cannot  be  done.  Among  us, 
since  we  have  but  just  acquired  our  prince  [Charles  V. 
was  elected  emperor,  June  28,  15 19],  great  and  excellent 
as  he  is,  yet  he  is  so  far  removed  that,  up  to  the  present 
time,  certain  men  are  exciting  tumults  without  reproof. 
I  think,  therefore,  that  your  Holiness  would  be  acting 
most  acceptably  to  Christ  if  you  should  impose  silence 
upon  such  contentions  as  these  and  should  do  for  the 
whole  Christian  world  what  Henry  and  Francis  have 
done,  each  for  his  own  kingdom.  Your  piety  is  bring- 
ing the  most  powerful  kings  into  harmony  ;  it  remains 
for  you,  by  the  same  means,  to  restore  to  learning  the 
peace  which  is  its  due.  This  will  come  to  pass,  if  by 
your  order  they  who  cannot  speak  shall  cease  their 
babbling  against  polite  learning,  and  they  who  have  no 
tongues  for  blessing  shall  cease  cursing  those  who  are 
devoted  to  the  tongues." 


1519]  Correspondence  307 

This  letter  rewards  somewhat  careful  reading. 
Two  ideas  are  obviously  before  the  writer's  mind : 
First,  the  cause  of  sound  learning  and  its  application 
to  theology,  the  cause  with  which  he  identifies  him- 
self so  completely  that  every  attack  upon  it  seems  a 
personal  assault  upon  him,  and  vice  versa.  Second, 
the  Lutheran  uprising,  now  beginning  to  show  its 
possibilities  of  danger.  Erasmus  names  no  names, 
but  the  solemn  warning  to  the  pope  as  to  the  little 
flame  that  may  grow  to  a  consuming  fire  seems  to 
point  plainly  enough  to  Luther,  and  the  distinction 
so  carefully  drawn  between  Germany  and  the  com- 
pact monarchies  of  France  and  England  confirms 
this  idea.  It  is  a  warning  prophetic  in  its  clearness 
of  insight,  but  naive  to  the  point  of  childishness  in 
its  suggestions  of  a  remedy.  The  new  little  emperor 
was  not  only  ingenti  semotus  intervallo  from  the  field 
of  Luther's  activity,  but  the  very  constitution  of 
Germany  made  it  utterly  out  of  the  question  that 
he  could  take  any  action  whatever  against  Luther 
except  by  the  consent  of  the  prince  who  was  his 
immediate  sovereign.  The  "  reguliy''  the  "  little 
kings  "  in  Germany,  had  not  bought  their  inde- 
pendence by  centuries  of  conflict  to  suffer  any  such 
burnings  at  the  stake  and  cutting-off  of  heads  by 
any  emperor  as  those  capable  youths,  Henry  and 
Francis,  could  command  at  will  in  London  or  Paris. 

Nor  was  there  any  more  promise  in  Erasmus'  sug- 
gestion that  the  pope  should  order  the  parties  in 
conflict  to  keep  silence.  The  Leipzig  disputation 
of  Luther  with  John  Eck  in  July  of  this  same  year 
(15 19)  was  to  bring  out  clearly  that,  after  all,  the 


3o8  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

real  issue  touched  the  papal  authority,  and  when 
that  was  questioned  it  was  idle  to  imagine  that  any 
papal  action  whatever  could  really  affect  the  course 
of  events. 

There  is  a  certain  variation  upon  this  suggestion 
in  the  dedication  to  Cardinal  Campeggio  of  the  para- 
phrases of  certain  epistles  of  Paul  in  15 19.'  After  a 
most  flattering  eulogy  of  Leo  X,  for  his  great  in- 
terest in  sound  learning,  Erasmus  says: 

"  If  a  means  of  pacification  is  sought  for,  I  think  it 
might  most  easily  be  accomplished  if  the  pope  should 
command  that  each  person  prepare  a  statement  of  his 
own  belief  and  set  it  forth,  without  abuse  of  opposing 
views,  so  that  the  madness  of  tongue  and  pen  may  be 
restrained,  especially  by  those  to  whom  such  control  be- 
longs. But  if  there  is  a  difference,  as  it  often  happens 
that  our  judgments  differ  like  our  tastes,  let  the  whole 
contention  be  held  within  the  limits  of  courtesy  and  not 
run  over  into  mad  excess.  And  if  there  be  any  point 
specially  touching  upon  doctrine — for  everything  ought 
not  to  be  dragged  in,  neck  and  heels,  under  the  head  of 
doctrine — let  it  be  discussed  by  men  who  are  thoroughly 
versed  in  the  mysteries  of  the  faith,  who  will  not  seek 
their  own  interests  under  the  pretence  of  the  faith  and 
who  will  carry  on  the  affair  with  prudent  judgment,  not 
with  seditious  disturbances." 

Erasmus  thinks  he  can  easily  persuade  Campeggio 
and  that  the  cardinal  will  easily  persuade  the  ex- 
cellent Leo.  Where  the  superhuman  beings  are  to 
be  found  who  will  carry  out  his  innocent  suggestions 

•  vii.,  969. 


I5I9]  Correspondence  309 

he  does  not  say.  We  are  bound  to  give  him  credit 
for  any  constructive  ideas  he  may  have  had,  and  in 
all  his  writings  there  is  nothing  that  comes  much 
nearer  to  positive  constructive  planning  than  this. 

If  one  may  judge  from  the  letter  to  Leo,  Erasmus' 
early  conception  of  the  Lutheran  movement  was 
much  like  that  which  prevailed  at  Rome.  It  was  a 
squabble  of  monks;  Luther  was  an  Augustinian, 
Tetzel  a  Dominican.  Most  monks  were  enemies  of 
learning — Luther  was  a  man  of  learning,  but  in- 
clined to  violence  and  not  willing  to  keep  the  mat- 
ter to  a  purely  intellectual  issue.  He  was,  of 
course,  right  on  many  points,  but  was  going  too 
fast  and  was  drawing  after  him  many  foolish  people, 
who  ought  to  be  held  in  check  by  the  established 
powers. 

Quite  the  same  tone  appears  in  a  long  letter '  to 
Albert  of  Brandenburg,  archbishop  of  Mainz,  the 
papal  agent  in  the  German  indulgence  of  15 17  and 
the  principal  clergyman  in  Germany.  Erasmus 
takes  the  opportunity  of  acknowledging  the  gift  of 
a  loving-cup  from  the  archbishop  to  go  at  length 
into  the  Lutheran  question.  He  reaches  it  again 
through  the  medium  of  his  own  personal  difficulties. 
For  a  time,  he  says,  he  had  made  peace  with  the 
"  theologians  "  at  Louvain.  They  were  to  hold 
their  scandalous  tongues ;  he  was  to  do  his  best  to 
keep  his  pen  still.  If  only  they  had  had  the  arch- 
bishop's cup  to  drink  their  mutual  faith  in,  the 
agreement  might  have  lasted  longer.  As  it  is,  an 
unhappy  letter,  badly  understood  and  worse  inter- 

'iii.,  5 1 3-D. 


3IO  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

preted,  has  brought  on  an  attack  more  furious  than 
ever.     He  begs  to  explain  * : 

*'  In  the  first  place,  I  have  never  had  anything  to  do, 
either  with  the  Reuchlin  business  or  with  the  affair  of 
Luther.  Whatever  Cabala  and  Talmud  may  be,  they 
have  never  attracted  me.  Those  contentions  between 
Reuchlin  and  the  followers  of  Hoogstraaten  were  most 
displeasing  to  me.  Luther  is  to  me  unknown  as  the 
most  unknown  of  men.  His  writings  I  have  not  had 
time  to  read,  excepting  that  I  have  just  barely  skimmed 
over  some  of  them." 

It  is  very  difficult  to  believe  that  these  statements 
are  true.  Erasmus  had  interested  himself  in  Reuch- 
lin's  affairs  enough  to  write  to  two  Roman  cardinals 
in  his  behalf.  He  knew  enough  about  Luther's 
writings  to  have  convinced  himself  that  their  tone 
was  too  decided  to  suit  him ;  if  he  had  not  read 
every  word  of  them,  he  was  thoroughly  informed  as 
to  their  contents.  The  motive  of  his  denial  appears 
in  the  next  words : 

"  If  he  has  written  well,  no  praise  belongs  to  me,  if  not 
there  is  nothing  which  can  be  laid  to  my  charge.  .  .  . 
I  was  sorry  that  the  books  of  Luther  were  published  and 
when  first  some  writings  or  other  of  his  began  to  be 
shown  about,  I  did  my  best  to  prevent  their  publication, 
especially  because  I  feared  that  some  tumult  would  be 
caused  thereby.  Luther  had  written  me  a  letter  in  what 
I  thought  a  very  Christian  spirit  and  I  answered,  warn- 
ing the  man  not  to  write  anything  seditious  or  insolent 
against  the  Roman  pontiff,  but  to  preach  the  apostolic 
'  iii.',  514-A. 


1519]  Correspondence  311 

doctrine  with  pure  heart  and  in  all  gentleness.  I  did 
this  politely  that  it  might  have  the  more  effect.  I  added 
that  there  were  some  here  who  favoured  him,  that  he 
might  the  more  accommodate  himself  to  their  judgment. 
Now  some  have  most  stupidly  interpreted  these  words 
as  if  I  favoured  Luther,  whereas  no  one  of  those  per- 
sons gave  him  any  advice  ;  I  was  the  only  one  who 
warned  him,  I  am  neither  the  accuser  of  Luther,  nor 
his  patron,  nor  his  judge.  As  to  the  man's  spirit,  I  dare 
not  judge  him,  for  that  is  a  most  difficult  matter,  espe- 
cially if  I  must  judge  him  unfavourably. 

"  And  yet,  even  if  I  did  favour  him  as  a  good  man, 
which  his  enemies  admit  him  to  be  ;  or  as  an  accused 
man,  and  that  the  laws  permit  even  to  sworn  judges  ;  or 
as  a  man  oppressed  and  crushed  down  by  those  who, 
under  some  made-up  pretext,  are  working  all  they  can 
against  pure  learning,  what  ground  of  fault-finding 
against  me  were  that,  so  long  as  I  do  not  mix  myself  in 
the  matter?  In  fine,  it  seems  to  me  the  part  of  a  Christ- 
ian to  favour  Luther,  in  this  sense,  that  if  he  is  innocent 
I  do  not  wish  him  to  be  crushed  by  the  factions  of  the 
wicked  ;  if  he  is  wrong  I  wish  him  to  be  set  right,  not 
ruined.     .     .     . 

"  But  now  certain  theologians  whom  I  know  are 
neither  warning  nor  teaching  Luther,  but  are  only  with 
mad  bowlings  reviling  him  before  the  people  and  tearing 
him  in  pieces  with  the  most  violent  abuse  and  continu- 
ally having  in  their  mouths  the  words  '  heresy  ! ',  '  here- 
tic ! ',  '  heresiarch  ! ',  '  schism  ! ',  '  antichrist ! '  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  these  clamours  were  raised  among  the 
people  chiefly  by  men  who  had  never  seen  the  books  of 
Luther.  It  is  well  proved  that  things  are  condemned  by 
these  people  as  heretical  in  Luther  which  in  Bernard  or 
Augustine  are  read  as  orthodox,  nay,  as  pious  words.     I 


312  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

warned  them  at  the  beginning  to  abstain  from  clamour 
of  this  sort  and  to  carry  on  the  affair  rather  with  writings 
and  arguments.  I  said  they  ought  not  publicly  to  con- 
demn what  they  had  not  read  and  carefully  thought  out, 
I  will  not  say,  understood.  Then  I  told  them  it  was 
unbecoming  for  theologians  to  carry  anything  through 
by  violence,  for  their  judgment  ought  to  be  of  the  most 
serious  kind,  and  that  it  was  not  an  easy  thing  to  gain 
their  point  by  raging  against  a  man  whose  life  was  ap- 
proved by  everyone.  Finally,  that  perhaps  it  was  not 
a  safe  thing  to  touch  upon  such  matters  before  a  mixed 
crowd,  in  which  there  are  many  who  greatly  dislike  the 
confession  of  secret  sins  and  if  these  should  hear  that 
there  are  theologians  who  say  one  need  not  confess  all 
faults,  they  will  readily  snatch  at  it  and  get  a  perverted 
notion.  Now  though  all  this  must  strike  every  man  of 
spirit  as  it  does  me,  yet  from  this  friendly  admonition 
they  have  conceived  the  suspicion  that  Luther's  books 
are  in  great  part  mine,  and  produced  at  Louvain,  whereas 
not  one  stroke  in  them  is  mine  or  published  with  my 
knowledge  or  my  will.  Still,  acting  upon  this  false  sus- 
picion and  in  spite  of  all  denial,  they  have  raised  here 
disturbances  more  furious  than  I  have  ever  seen  in  my 
life. 

"  Further,  though  the  special  function  of  theologians  is 
to  teach,  I  see  many  nowadays  who  are  doing  nothing 
but  compelling  men,  bringing  them  to  ruin  or  to  silence, 
whereas  Augustine,  even  in  the  case  of  the  Donatists, 
who  were  not  merely  heretics  but  furious  brigands,  does 
not  approve  those  who  would  merely  compel,  without 
also  teaching  them.  Men  to  whom  gentleness  is  a  duty, 
seem  to  be  simply  thirsting  for  human  blood,  so  eager 
are  they  to  ensnare  and  ruin  Luther.  Now  this  is  play- 
ing the  butcher,  not  the  theologian.     If  they  want  to 


rsig]  Correspondence  313 

show  themselves  great  theologians  let  them  convert  the 
Jews,  let  them  turn  to  Christ  those  who  are  strangers  to 
him,  let  them  mend  the  public  morals  of  Christians,  even 
more  corrupt  than  those  of  Turks,  What  justice  is  there 
in  leading  him  to  punishment,  who  has  now  first  proposed 
for  discussion  things  which  have  always  been  discussed 
in  all  the  schools  of  theologians  ?  Why  ought  he  to  be 
persecuted,  who  begs  to  be  instructed,  who  submits  him- 
self to  the  judgment  of  the  Roman  See  and  of  the  schools, 
which  they  call  'universities?'  And  if  he  refuses  to 
trust  himself  in  the  hands  of  certain  persons  who  would 
rather  see  him  crushed  than  instructed,  surely  that  is  not 
strange." 

For  a  man  who  was  a  total  stranger  to  Luther  and 
his  books,  Erasmus  shows  himself  surprisingly  well 
informed. 

"  Let  us  examine  into  the  origin  of  the  present  troubles. 
The  world  is  burdened  with  human  devices,  with  the 
opinions  and  the  dogmas  of  the  schools,  with  the  tyr- 
anny of  the  Mendicant  Friars,  who,  though  they  are 
the  servants  of  the  Roman  See,  are  making  themselves 
a  danger  to  the  pope  himself  and  even  to  kings,  by 
their  power  and  their  numbers.  When  the  pope  is  work- 
ing for  them  he  is  more  than  a  God  ;  if  he  does  anything 
contrary  to  their  convenience,  he  is  of  no  more  ac- 
count than  a  dream.  '  I  am  not  condemning  them  all  ; 
but  very  many  are  the  kind  of  persons,  who  for  the  sake 
of  power  and  gain  are  seeking  to  ensnare  the  consciences 
of  men.  With  shameless  effrontery  they  were  beginning 
to  leave  out  Christ  entirely  and  to  preach  nothing  but 
their  own  novel  and  impudent  doctrines.  About  indulg- 
ences they  were  talking  in  a  way  that  not  even  idiots 


314  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518 

could  stand.  Through  this  and  many  other  things  the 
vigour  of  apostolic  teaching  was  gradually  disappearing 
and  it  was  likely  to  happen  that  things  would  go  from 
bad  to  worse  until  that  spark  of  Christian  piety  should 
be  extinguished,  from  which  the  dying  flame  of  Christian 
love  might  have  been  rekindled.  The  whole  of  religion 
was  turning  towards  more  than  Jewish  ceremonialism. 
Good  men  grieved  over  all  these  things.  Even  theolog- 
ians who  are  not  monks,  and  some  monks,  confessed  to 
them  in  private  conversation.  These  are  the  things,  as 
I  think,  which  first  moved  the  heart  of  Luther  to  set 
himself  boldly  against  the  intolerable  insolence  of  cer- 
tain persons.  For  what  else  can  I  suspect  of  a  man  who 
is  aiming  at  neither  honours  nor  wealth  ?  As  to  the  pro- 
positions which  they  object  to  in  Luther,  I  am  not  at 
present  discussing  them,  but  only  the  manner  and  the 
occasion  of  them. 

"  Luther  dared  to  have  doubts  about  indulgences,  but 
others  before  him  had  made  bold  enough  statements 
about  these.  He  dared  to  speak  rather  unrestrainedly 
about  the  authority  of  the  Roman  pontiff  ;  but  others 
had  shown  little  enough  restraint  in  this  matter,  and 
among  them  especially  Alvarus,  Sylvester,  and  the  car- 
dinal of  San  Sisto.  He  dared  despise  the  judgment  of 
St.  Thomas,  but  the  Dominicans  had  almost  set  Thomas 
above  the  Gospels.  He  dared  in  the  matter  of  the  con- 
fessional to  discuss  certain  scruples,  but  in  this  thing  the 
monks  have  entangled  the  consciences  of  men  without 
limit.  He  dared  in  part  to  despise  the  conclusions  of 
the  schools  ;  but  they  had  laid  far  too  great  weight  upon 
these,  and  yet  cannot  agree  upon  them  among  themselves, 
but  are  always  changing  them,  cutting  out  the  old  and 
putting  in  new.  This  was  a  pain  to  pious  souls  :  to  hear 
in  the  schools  scarcely  a  word  about  the  apostolic  teach- 


ERASMUS  WITH  '"TERMINUS." 

FROM  A  WOODCUT  BY  HOLBEIN,  IN  THE  BASEL  MUSEUM. 


1519]  Correspondence  315 

ing,  but  to  learn  that  the  ancient  sacred  writers,  long 
approved  by  the  Church,  were  now  quite  antiquated,  and 
to  hear  in  public  preaching  seldom  a  word  of  Christ, 
but  always  of  the  power  of  the  pope  and  the  opinions 
of  the  moderns  ;  to  know  that  the  whole  discourse  was 
filled  with  lust  of  gain,  with  flatteries,  ambition,  and 
deceit. 

"  I  think  the  blame  ought  to  be  put  upon  these  things, 
if  Luther  wrote  a  little  too  violently.  Whoever  defends 
the  apostolic  doctrine  defends  the  pope,  who  is  its  chief 
herald,  as  the  rest  of  the  bishops  are  his  heralds.  All 
bishops  stand  in  the  place  of  Christ,  but  among  them  the 
Roman  pontiff  stands  first.  We  must  believe  of  him  that 
he  cares  for  nothing  more  than  the  glory  of  Christ,  whose 
minister  he  boasts  himself  to  be.  They  deserve  very 
badly  of  him  who  ascribe  to  him  things  which  he  would 
not  himself  recognise  and  which  are  far  from  helpful  to 
the  flock  of  Christ.  And  yet  some  who  are  stirring  up 
these  disorders  are  not  doing  it  out  of  love  for  the  pope, 
but  are  abusing  his  authority  for  their  own  profit  and 
power.  We  have,  as  I  believe,  a  pious  pope  ;  but  in  the 
vast  flood  of  affairs  there  are  many  things  of  which  he  is 
ignorant,  which  even  if  he  would  he  cannot  get  at,  but 
as  Virgil  says,  the  driver  is  *  swept  along  by  the  steeds 
and  the  car  heeds  not  the  rein.'  He  therefore  is  aiding 
the  good-will  of  the  pope,  who  exhorts  him  to  those 
things  that  are  especially  worthy  of  Christ. 

"  It  is  no  secret  that  there  are  persons  who  are  stirring 
up  his  Holiness  against  Luther  and  against  all  who  dare 
to  murmur  against  their  dogmas.  But  the  great  princes 
ought  rather  to  consider  what  is  demanded  by  the  per- 
manent will  of  the  pope,  than  by  a  loyalty  extorted  by 
base  means.  What  kind  of  people  the  authors  of  these 
dissensions  are  I  could  make  perfectly  clear,  if  I  did  not 


3i6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

fear  that  while  I  am  telling  the  truth  I  may  seem  to  be 
uttering  abuse.  Many  of  them  I  know  intimately  ;  many 
have  declared  their  quality  by  their  writings,  so  that  no 
mirror  could  more  clearly  reflect  the  image  of  their  heart 
and  life.  Would  that  they  who  take  up  the  Censor's 
rod  to  drive-  out  of  the  Senate  of  Christians  whomever 
they  will,  had  drunk  more  deeply  of  the  teaching  and 
the  spirit  of  Christ.     .     .     . 

"  I  say  these  things  the  more  freely  because  I  stand  in 
every  way  utterly  apart  from  the  case  of  Reuchlin  and 
Luther.  I  should  never  care  to  write  things  of  that  sort, 
nor  can  I  claim  so  much  learning  for  myself  as  to  defend 
what  others  have  written,  but  I  cannot  help  making  this 
mystery  plain  :  that  those  men  [the  opponents  of  Luther] 
are  aiming  at  something  quite  different  from  what  they 
pretend.  They  have  long  been  unable  to  bear  the  idea 
of  sound  learning  and  the  languages  flourishing,  the  an- 
cient authors  coming  to  life,  who  were  until  just  now 
lying  covered  with  dust  and  eaten  up  by  moths,  the 
world  called  back  to  the  original  sources  themselves. 
They  tremble  for  their  own  emptiness,  they  are  unwilling 
to  appear  ignorant  of  anything  ;  they  fear  to  lose  some- 
thing of  their  own  authority.  They  have  long  been 
pressing  upon  this  sore,  and  at  last  it  has  broken,  for 
the  pain  could  no  longer  be  concealed.  Before  the 
books  of  Luther  appeared  they  were  most  urgent  in  this 
thing,  especially  Dominicans  and  Carmelites,  of  whom  I 
would  that  many  were  not  more  wicked  than  ignorant. 

"  When  Luther's  books  came  out  they  seized  upon  them 
as  a  handle  and  began  to  bring  the  cause  of  the  lan- 
guages, of  sound  learning,  of  Reuchlin  and  Luther,  nay, 
even  my  cause  also,  together  into  one  bundle, — making 
not  only  a  bad  exposition,  but  also  a  bad  distinction.  For, 
in  the  first  place,  what  has  sound  learning  to  do  with  the 


1519]  Correspondence  317 

question  of  faith,  and,  in  the  next  place,  what  have  I  to 
do  with  the  case  of  Reuchlin  and  Luther?  But  these 
people  have  cunningly  mingled  these  matters  together 
so  as  to  involve  in  one  common  hatred  all  who  cultivate 
sound  learning.  That  they  are  not  acting  honestly  is 
evident  from  this  fact :  they  confess  that  there  is  no 
one  among  ancient  or  modern  writers  who  has  not  made 
mistakes  and  they  will  make  a  heretic  of  anyone  who 
obstinately  defends  himself  ;  but  why  do  they  pass  over 
the  rest  and  so  persistently  examine  into  one  or  two? 
They  are  not  disturbed  because  Alvarus^and  the  cardinal 
of  San  Sisto  and  Sylvester  Prierias  have  often  erred;  they 
say  not  a  word  of  these  because  they  are  Dominicans. 
They  cry  out  against  Reuchlin  alone  because  he  is  an 
enthusiastic  lover  of  the  languages  ;  against  Luther  be- 
cause they  imagine  him  to  be  endowed  with  our  learn- 
ing, whereas  he  has  but  just  barely  touched  it.  Luther 
has  written  many  things  rather  rashly  than  wickedly, 
and  among  these  things  they  are  especially  enraged  be- 
cause he  has  little  respect  for  Thomas  Aquinas,  because 
he  is  diminishing  the  revenue  from  indulgences,  be- 
cause he  cares  little  for  the  begging  Friars,  because  he 
pays  less  respect  to  the  dogmas  of  the  schools  than  to 
the  Gospels,  because  he  takes  no  account  of  human  ar- 
gumentations about  disputed  points.  Intolerable  heresies 
these  are  ! 

"  But  these  things  they  pass  over  and  make  hateful 
charges  to  the  pope,  these  men  who  are  united  and  eager 
only  in  doing  harm.  Formefly  the  heretic  was  heard 
respectfully  and  absolved  if  he  gave  satisfaction,  but  if 
he  persisted  and  was  convicted,  the  extreme  penalty  was 
that  he  was  not  admitted  to  the  communion  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  Now  the  charge  of  heresy  is  a  differ- 
ent  thing   and   yet,  for  some  slight  reason,  no  matter 


3i8  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

what,  straightway  their  mouths  are  full  of  the  cry  :  *  This 
is  heresy  !  '  Formerly  he  was  a  heretic  who  differed 
from  the  Gospels  or  the  articles  of  faith  or  from  some- 
thing which  had  an  authority  equal  to  these.  Now,  if 
anyone  differ  from  Thomas,  he  is  called  a  heretic  ;  nay, 
if  he  differ  from  some  new-fangled  logic,  patched  up  but 
yesterday  by  any  sophist  of  the  schools.  Whatever  they 
do  not  like,  whatever  they  do  not  understand,  is  heresy  ! 
to  know  Greek  is  heresy  !  to  speak  correctly  is  heresy  ! 
whatever  they  do  not  do  is  heresy  !  I  confess  that  the 
charge  of  violation  of  the  faith  is  a  serious  one,  but  not 
any  and  every  question  ought  to  be  turned  into  a  ques- 
tion of  faith.  They  who  deal  with  matters  of  faith  ought 
to  be  far  removed  from  every  form  of  ambition,  of 
money-making,  of  personal  hatred,  or  of  revenge.  But 
what  these  people  are  chiefly  concerned  with,  who  can  be 
in  doubt  ?  If  once  the  reins  of  their  greed  are  let  loose, 
they  will  begin  everywhere  to  rage  against  every  good 
man.  Finally  they  will  threaten  the  bishops  themselves 
and  even  the  Roman  pontiffs  ;  and  in  fact  you  may  call 
me  a  liar,  if  we  are  not  seeing  this  done  by  some  already. 
How  far  the  order  of  the  Dominicans  will  dare  to  go  we 
may  learn  from  Jerome  Savonarola  and  the  crime  of 
Bern.'  I  am  not  bringing  up  again  the  bad  name  of 
that  order,  but  I  am  only  giving  warning  as  to  what  we 
must  look  out  for  if  they  are  to  succeed  in  whatever  they 
are  bold  enough  to  undertake.  What  I  have  said  thus 
far  has  nothing  to  do  with  Luther's  cause  ;  I  am  speak- 
ing only  of  the  manner  and  the  danger  of  it.  The  case 
of  Reuchlin  the  pope  has  taken  upon  himself.    Luther's 

•  The  reference  is  to  a  celebrated  fraud  perpetrated  by  the  Domin- 
icans of  Bern  to  demonstrate  their  superiority  over  their  Franciscan 
rivals.  The  fraud  was  detected  and  the  ringleaders  were  burned 
alive,  1509, 


I5I9]  Correspondence  319 

business  is  referred  to  the  universities  and  whatever  they 
may  decide  is  no  risk  of  mine." 

The  letter  concludes  with  the  now  familiar  pro- 
testations that  he,  Erasmus,  has  nothing  whatever 
to  do  with  the  present  troubles,  but  is  merely  giving 
a  timely  warning. 

This  letter  to  Archbishop  Albert  is  the  most  im- 
portant in  the  group  we  are  now  considering.  It 
shows  us  practically  every  aspect  of  Erasmus'  posi- 
tion in  the  year  15 19,  and  suggests  the  numerous 
lines  of  comment  thereon.  The  least  convincing 
parts  of  it  are  those  which  refer  to  himself  person- 
ally. These  may  be  sufificiently  explained  by  that 
joy  in  fancying  himself  persecuted  which  we  have 
noted  in  him  from  the  first.  It  needed  but  very 
slight  foundations  for  him  to  build  up  a  whole  fab- 
ric of  imaginary  assaults,  aimed  at  him  because  he 
was  the  one  great  source  from  which  all  intellect- 
ual energy  might  seem  to  flow.  It  was  like  his  van- 
ity to  be  vastly  flattered  if  someone  suggested  that 
Luther  could  never  have  done  what  he  had  done 
without  Erasmus'  help,  and  he  magnified  that  sug- 
gestion by  saying  it  over  and  over  to  his  numerous 
correspondents  in  every  possible  variation.  The 
repeated  declaration  that  he  knew  nothing  about 
Luther  or  his  books  is  too  silly  to  deserve  attention. 
He  shows  the  most  complete  comprehension  of 
what  Luther  was  doing,  and  practically  contradicts 
himself  within  the  space  of  a  few  lines  by  stating 
that  he  has  "  taken  a  taste  "  of  certain  Lutheran 
books  and  been  greatly  attracted  by  them. 

Another    curious    point   is   his   insistence   upon 


320  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

grouping  Luther  and  Reuchlin  together  and  setting 
himself  over  against  them.  In  fact  the  points  of 
view  of  these  two  men  were  at  least  as  different  as 
was  that  of  Erasmus  from  either  of  them.  Reuchlin 
was  above  all  things  a  Humanist,  a  man  of  "  the 
languages,"  and  the  "  tragedy  "  in  which  he  was 
concerned,  his  quarrel  with  the  Dominicans  of 
Cologne,  had  reference  to  the  use  which  might 
properly  be  made  of  Hebrew  by  a  sound  Christian 
scholarship.  All  this  was  certainly  very  closely 
allied  with  the  work  of  Erasmus  and  had  no  direct 
connection  with  that  of  Luther;  yet  Erasmus,  furi- 
ously anxious  not  to  seem  to  have  anything  in  com- 
mon with  either,  has  no  scruple  in  joining  them 
together  in  one  common  reproach. 

All  this  gives  an  effect  of  pettiness  to  Erasmus* 
attitude  towards  the  Reformation  and  tends  to  ob- 
scure his  actual  service.  So  far  as  one  can  get  at 
his  real  meaning,  it  is  something  like  this :  the  real 
authors  of  the  present  troubles  are  the  mysterious 
people  whom  he  here  continually  refers  to  as  "cert- 
ain persons  "  or  "  those  men,"  and  whom  he  occas- 
ionally defines  more  specifically  as  the  monks  or  the 
enemies  of  sound  learning.  Luther  is  right  in  calling 
attention  to  the  evils  of  church  life;  he  is  not  the 
first  to  do  it,  and  Erasmus  heartily  agrees  with  him. 
"  Those  people  "  are  attacking  Luther  because  they 
feel,  as  well  they  may,  that  their  rights  and  privi- 
leges are  in  danger,  if  men  are  going  to  listen  to  his 
criticism.  They  are  catching,  therefore,  at  every 
excuse  to  charge  him  with  heresy.  Erasmus  affects 
to  believe  that  pope,  cardinals,   and  all  good  and 


I 


1519]  Correspondence  321 

reasonable  men  will  see  through  these  attempts  and 
will  hasten  to  save  the  Church  by  accepting  what  is 
valuable  in  this  Lutheran  criticism  and  acting  upon 
it  at  once. 

But, — and  here  is  the  line  of  distinction, — there 
was  also  in  Luther's  appeal  an  element  of  doctrine, 
an  implication  at  least  that  the  Church  was  false  to 
its  own  teaching  as  to  the  direct  relation  between 
God  and  the  soul  of  man.  The  consequences  of 
this  doctrinal  implication  were,  as  Erasmus  must 
have  felt  at  once,  of  the  most  far-reaching  sort,  and 
he  was  not  prepared  to  follow  them  up.  An  un- 
conditional declaration  in  Luther's  favour  would 
have  seemed  to  commit  him  to  the  doctrinal  as 
well  as  to  the  practical  conclusions  from  Luther's 
premises. 

This  gives  at  least  a  shadow  of  reasonableness  to 
his  refinement  of  distinction  between  merely  reading 
over  the  works  of  Luther  and  making  such  careful 
study  of  them  as  would  enable  him  to  attempt  a 
reply.  On  the  23rd  of  September,  1521,  he  writes 
to  Bombasius  in  Bologna ' : 

"  I  am  wholly  occupied  with  revising  my  New  Testa- 
ment and  some  other  works,  trying  like  the  bears  gradu- 
ally to  lick  into  shape  the  crude  product  of  my  talents. 
But  soon  I  hope  to  have  more  leisure.  I  have  been 
trying  hard  to  persuade  Aleander  to  give  me  permission 
to  read  Luther's  writings  ;  for  nowadays  the  world  is 
full  of  sycophants  and  prize-fighters.  He  said  emphatic- 
ally he  could  not  do  this  without  a  special  permit  from 
the  pope  ;  so  I  wish  you  would  get  this  for  me  in  the 

iii.',  665-B. 


322  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

form  of  some  kind  of  a  brief.     For  I  do  not  want  to  give 
a  handle  to  these  knaves,  who  would  like  nothing  better." 

His  bite  noire  at  Louvain  seems  to  have  been 
a  person  called  Egmund,  a  Carmelite  monk,  who 
may  serve  us  as  the  type  of  "  those  persons  "  who 
were  trying  to  identify  Erasmus  with  the  Lutheran 
cause.  Writing '  to  the  Rector  Magnificus  of  the 
University  of  Louvain,  still  in  15 19,  Erasmus  says 
that  this  Egmund  had  been  expressing  the  pious 
hope  that  as  St.  Paul  had  been  converted  from  a 
persecutor  to  a  doctor  of  the  Church,  so  Erasmus 
and  Luther  might  some  day  be  converted. 

"  What  will  become  of  these  men  ?  The  one  thing 
they  want  is  to  do  harm  in  some  way,  and  it  offends 
them  that  I  am  not  a  Lutheran,  as  indeed  I  am  not,  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  Luther  serves  the  glory  of  Christ.  I 
know  that  I  am  rather  free  of  tongue,  but  yet  no  one 
has  heard  me  approve  the  doctrine  of  Luther.  I  have 
never  taken  pains  to  read  his  books,  excepting  a  few 
pages,  and  these  rather  skimmed  than  read.  Your  con- 
tentions against  Luther  I  have  always  consistently  fa- 
voured, but  far  more  your  writings,  especially  those  of 
John  Turenholtius,  who,  as  I  hear,  has  carried  on  the 
discussion  in  a  scholarly  way  and  without  personalities." 

He  has  not  read  Luther,  yet  he  has  steadily  ap- 
proved the  Louvain  contentions  against  him  and 
especially  the  writings  of  a  man  of  whom  he  knows 
only  by  hearsay  that  he  writes  in  good  temper! 

"  If  his  [Luther's]  books  were  to  be.  burnt,  no  one 

'iii-'.  537. 


I5I9]  Correspondence  323 

would  find  me  any  the  sadder.  I  have  written  privately 
and  said  many  things  to  prevent  him  from  writing  so 
seditiously,  and  yet  I  am  called  a  Lutheran  !  If  these 
jokes  amuse  your  university,  I  am  man  enough  to  bear 
them  ;  for  I  would  rather  do  this  than  take  revenge  for 
them  ;  but  in  my  judgment  the  cause  would  be  better 
served  by  other  methods.  Vincentius  is  changing  me 
with  the  tumult  in  Holland,  in  which  after  a  most  foolish 
discourse,  he  came  near  being  stoned  to  death  ;  whereas 
the  truth  is  I  have  never  written  to  any  Dutchman  either 
for  Luther  or  against  him." 

He  writes  to  Mountjoy  in  the  same  year ' : 

"  While  you  are  happy  for  so  many  reasons  I  am  com- 
pelled to  fight  with  certain  monsters  rather  than  men. 
By  Hercules  !  I  would  like  to  try  what  eloquence  might 
do,  were  it  not  that  as  I  lay  my  hand  upon  the  hilt  a 
certain  Christian  modesty,  like  Pallas  in  Homer,  seizes 
me  by  the  hair  and  restrains  me." 

So  far  Erasmus  had  stood  in  an  attitude  of  studied 
neutrality.  We  have  to  gather  from  his  emphasis 
and  from  the  undercurrent  of  his  eloquence  our  im- 
pression as  to  the  side  on  which  his  sympathies 
really  lay.  If  the  world  could  only  have  stood  still 
long  enough  for  his  wise  and  cautious  suggestions 
to  affect  the  parties,  all  might  yet  have  been  well. 
Unhappily  for  the  Erasmians  of  all  times,  the  world 
moves,  and  it  does  not  move  strictly  according  to 
rule.  Even  while  Erasmus  was  exhorting  to  mild- 
ness, events  were  forcing  men  into  partisan  attitudes 

•  iii.>,  538-C. 


324  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

which  made  his  counsel  of  no  avail.  There  were 
enough  men  who  felt  passionately  the  wrongs  which 
he  felt  only  academically,  to  force  the  discussion 
into  the  fighting  stage.  The  more  this  becomes 
evident,  the  more  clearly  we  see  Erasmus  moving 
over  from  the  position  of  sympathetic  neutrality 
towards  the  reforming  party  into  that  of  suspicion 
and  declared  hostility. 

In  the  correspondence  we  have  just  quoted,  the 
weight  of  emphasis  is  on  the  provocation  which  the 
reformers  had  received.  They  were  pretty  violent, 
but  their  enemies  were  worse,  and  if  the  highest 
authority  were  to  act  at  all,  it  would  do  better  to 
compel  the  men  of  darkness  to  silence  rather  than 
the  excellent  Luther  and  his  worthy  followers. 
How  far  Erasmus,  whether  in  1519-20  or  at  any 
later  time,  really  changed  his  opinion  on  any  of  the 
points  at  issue,  will  probably  always  remain  a  sub- 
ject for  controversy.  We  are  concerned  with  the 
change  of  emphasis  by  which  his  final  attitude  was 
determined. 

Two  letters  of  15 19,  one  to  Philip  Melanchthon, 
in  the  centre  of  the  Lutheran  camp,  and  one  to  the 
Dominican  Jacob  Hoogstraaten,  the  head  of  the 
Inquisition  at  Cologne,  will  serve  to  show  how 
evenly  at  this  time  Erasmus  distributed  the  dis- 
cipline he  felt  himself  called  upon  to  administer  to 
the  new  and  more  tumultuous  generation. 

One  can  hardly  help  smiling  at  this  passage  from 
the  letter  to  the  gentle  and  peace-loving  Melanch- 
thon, by  all  means  the  sweetest-natured  of  all  the 
Reformation  champions.     Erasmus  makes  him  some 


1519]  Correspondence  325 

very  pretty  compliments  on  his  books  and  then  goes 
on'  : 

"  But,  if  you  will  take  advice  from  Erasmus,  I  wish 
you  would  take  more  pains  in  setting  forth  good  learning 
than  in  attacking  its  enemies.  They  are  indeed  worthy 
of  being  assailed  by  good  men  with  every  sort  of  abuse, 
but,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  we  shall  accomplish  more  in 
the  way  I  advise.  Besides,  we  ought  to  fight  in  such 
fashion  that  we  may  seem  to  be  their  superiors,  not  only 
in  eloquence  but  also  in  modesty  and  in  good  breeding 
Everyone  here  approves  of  Martin  Luther's  character, 
but  there  are  divers  opinions  as  to  his  beliefs.  I  myself 
have  not  yet  read  his  books.  Certain  things  he  is  right 
in  calling  attention  to,  but  I  wish  he  had  done  it  as 
happily  as  he  has  boldly.  I  have  written  about  him  to 
Duke  Frederic." 

This  letter  to  Frederic  of  Saxony,"  wanting  in  our 
collection,  emphasises  as  strongly  as  possible  the 
excellence  of  Luther  as  a  man,  and,  while  disclaim- 
ing all  interest  in  his  doctrine,  urges  the  Elector  to 
defend  him  against  his  persecution. 

Doubtless  he  was  no  less  favourable  to  Luther 
than  he  was  in  the  following  year,  when  the  Elector 
Frederic,  finding  himself  at  Cologne  on  imperial 
business,  had  an  interview  with  Erasmus,  of  which 
his  intimate  counsellor  and  biographer  Spalatin  gives 
an  account ': 


'iii.',  431. 

'Karl  Hartfelder,  "  Friedrich  der  Weise  von  Sachsen  und  D. 
Erasmus,"  in  Zeitschrift  fur  vergleichende  Literaturgeschichte,  etc., 
N.  F.,  iv.,  1891. 

'  Friedrichs  des  Weisen  Leben  und  Zeitgeschichte ,  von  G,  Spalatin, 
Jena,  1851,  p.  164. 


326  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

"  There  at  Cologne  the  most  learned  Erasmus  of  Rot- 
terdam was  with  the  Elector,  who  talked  with  him  on 
all  kinds  of  subjects  and  asked  him  if  he  believed  that 
Doctor  Martin  Luther  had  erred  in  his  writing  and 
preaching.  Thereto  he  answered  in  Latin  :  *  Yes,  on 
two  points,  namely,  that  he  has  attacked  the  crown  of 
the  pope  and  the  bellies  of  the  monks,'  " 

Thereat  the   Elector  laughed  and  he  recalled  the 
saying  a  year  or  so  before  his  death  (1525). 

Luther  contributes  to  our  impression  of  this  inter- 
view in  his  Table-talk : 

"  Doctor  Martin  said  that  the  Elector  Frederic  of 
Saxony  had  an  interview  with  Erasmus  at  Cologne  in 
15 19  and  had  given  him  a  cloak  and  said  afterward  to 
Spalatin  :  *  What  kind  of  a  man  is  Erasmus  ?  one  can- 
not tell  where  one  stands  with  him.'  And  Duke  George 
said,  after  his  fashion  :  '  Plague  take  him  !  One  never 
knows  what  he  is  at.  I  like  better  the  way  of  the  Wit- 
tenbergers  ;  they  say  yes  and  no,'  "  ' 

The  letter  to  Hoogstraaten,  who  had  been  the 
chief  enemy  of  Reuchlin,  was  the  boldest  venture 
of  Erasmus  in  this  early  stage  of  the  Lutheran  con- 
test. It  is  a  monument  to  the  writer's  skill  in  de- 
fending two  sides  of  a  question  at  once.  It  is  dated 
in  August,  1 5 19,  and  begins': 

"  When  I  was  reading,  some  time  ago,  the  books  in 
which  your  quarrel  with  Reuchlin  is  contained,  I  was 

'  Walch,  Luther's  JVerke,  xxii,,  1623-4. 
»iii.',  484. 


I 


I5I9]  Correspondence  327 

often  impelled  to  write  to  you,  first  by  Christian  love, 
then  by  the  profession  of  our  common  studies  and 
further  by  the  special  affection  with  which  from  a  boy  I 
have  ever  regarded  your  Order  [!],  and  lastly  by  an  un- 
common attraction  towards  you,  whom  I  understand  to 
be  a  man  of  agreeable  and  courteous  manners.  That 
you  are  most  eagerly  devoted  to  our  new  studies,  your 
writings  clearly  proclaim,  which  affect  throughout  refine- 
ment and  elegance  of  diction  and  leave  no  doubt  what 
your  opinion  is  as  to  sound  learning." 

All  this  tempted  Erasmus  to  give  him  some  good 
advice;  but  then,  on  the  other  hand,  he  reflected 
that  good  advice  is  seldom  acceptable  and  generally 
harms  the  adviser.  The  bishop  of  Cologne,  how- 
ever, had  removed  this  scruple,  and,  if  he  tells  the 
truth  about  Hoogstraaten,  Erasmus  thinks  he  may 
venture  on  some  gentle  admonition.  At  first  he 
was  dreadfully  afflicted  at  Reuchlin's  violence;  but 
then  friends  told  him  that  Reuchlin  must  have  had 
terrible  provocation,  for  that  he  was  naturally  the 
mildest  of  men.  Then  certain  persons  said  hard 
things  of  Hoogstraaten,  and  finally,  when  Erasmus 
came  to  read  him,  he  was  compelled  to  say  that  he 
had  liked  him  better  before  he  began  to  defend 
himself.  Then,  a  little  while  after,  he  had  picked 
up  "in  another  person's  library  "  certain  furious 
letters  against  Hoogstraaten  and,  little  as  these 
pleased  him,  he  was  able  partly  to  excuse  them, 
having  read  the  pamphlets  which  had  called  them 
forth.  He  is  not  fighting  Reuchlin's  battle;  rather 
Hoogstraaten 's,  for  he  is  trying  to  tell  him  what  will 
be  for  his  advantage.     If  he  answers  that  this  is 


328  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

simply  his  office  as  inquisitor,  very  well;  let  him 
perform  his  office,  but  in  such  a  manner  that  he 
may  seem  to  everyone  to  be  doing  solely  the  service 
of  Christ. 

"  Had  you  not  done  your  duty  when  after  so  many 
years  and  such  a  storm  of  pamphlets  you  had  persecuted 
a  quite  obscure  man,  who  perhaps  would  never  have 
been  known  at  all,  if  you  had  not  made  him  famous? 
and  this  after  the  Roman  pontiff,  learning  that  the  affair 
was  of  such  a  kind  that  it  was  better  to  drop  it  than  keep 
it  in  agitation  any  longer,  had  ordered  silence.  If  any 
error  dangerous  to  Christian  piety  appears,  it  is  first  to 
be  carefully  worked  out  by  the  discussions  of  learned 
men  and  then  is  to  be  reported  to  the  bishop.  When  you 
have  done  that  your  part  as  inquisitor  is  done.  You  have 
made  the  inquiry  and  have  brought  it  before  the  proper 
authorities.  You  are  not  called  upon  to  stir  up  heaven 
and  earth  and  to  raise  such  tumults  as  these.  "Would 
that  you  had  spent  as  much  pains,  as  much  money  and 
time,  in  preaching  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  If  you  had,  I 
am  greatly  mistaken  or  Jacob  Hoogstraaten  would  be  a 
greater  man  than  he  is  now,  and  his  name  would  be  far 
more  honoured  among  all  good  men,  or  at  least  would 
be  less  hated.  As  it  is,  a  great  part  of  this  hatred  falls 
upon  your  Order,  which,  heavily  burdened  already  by 
serious  hostilities  on  many  accounts,  ought  not  to  be 
weighed  down  by  new  ones." 

Then  follows  a  long  defence  of  some  words  of 
Erasmus  quoted  by  Hoogstraaten,  without  naming 
their  author,  but  which  seemed  to  draw  him  into 
the  Reuchlin  quarrel.     "  May  Christ  be  as  favour- 


1519]  Correspondence  329 

able  to  me  as  I  am  little  favourable  to  the  Cabbala!  " 
He  cares  nothing  for  the  Jews: 

"  Who  is  there  among  us  who  does  not  sufficiently 
hate  this  race  of  men  ?  If  it  is  a  Christian  thing  to  hate 
Jews,  we  are  all  good  Christians  enough  !  The  one 
thing  that  makes  all  the  trouble  is  the  neglect  of  learning. 
You  will  be  serving  much  better  the  cause,  not  only  of 
the  Dominican  order,  but  also  of  Theology  as  a  whole, 
if  you  will  check  by  your  authority  the  vacant  abuse  of 
certain  persons  who  everywhere,  in  public  and  private 
discourses,  in  disputations,  at  banquets,  and  what  is 
most  serious,  in  public  preaching  are  brawling  against 
skill  in  the  languages  and  against  polite  letters,  mingling 
with  their  hatred  of  these,  cries  of  *  Antichrist  ! ' '  heresy  ! ' 
and  other  violent  words  of  this  sort,  whereas  it  is  perfectly 
clear  how  greatly  the  Church  is  indebted  to  men  skilled 
in  languages  and  in  eloquence.  These  studies  do  not 
hide  the  dignity  of  theology,  but  make  it  more  plain  ; 
do  not  oppose  it,  but  serve  it.  You  would  not  straight- 
way brand  the  art  of  music  as  heretical,  if  perchance 
some  musician  were  to  be  apprehended  as  a  backslider. 
The  error  of  the  man  is  to  be  condemned,  but  honour  is 
still  to  be  paid  to  his  studies.  ...  If  Theology  will 
join  in  doing  honour  to  these  studies  she  will  in  turn  be 
adorned  by  them  ;  but  if  she  abuses  and  reviles  them,  I 
fear  it  will  come  to  pass,  as  Paul  says,  that  while  they 
are  assailing  each  other  with  mutual  bites,  they  will 
simply  be  the  death  of  each  other." 

In  view  of  this  correspondence  of  15 18-19  we 
may  well  consider  here  the  much-discussed  question 
of  Erasmus'  personal  courage.     Of  all  the  charges 


330  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

brought  against  him  on  both  sides  that  of  timidity 
is  the  most  frequent.  Of  all  the  explanations  of  his 
attitude  toward  the  Reformation  this  is  the  most 
obvious  and  the  most  popular.  If  one  can  accept  it, 
it  settles  promptly  and  once  for  all  a  multitude  of 
perplexing  questions.  "  Why  did  Erasmus  not  do 
or  say  this  thing  or  that  thing  ?  He  was  afraid." 
In  pursuance  of  our  principle  not  to  pretend  to  know 
the  motive  of  every  act  of  Erasmus'  life,  we  shall 
not  attempt  to  give  one  answer  that  will  fit  all  cases, 
but  shall  venture  to  be  a  little  Erasmian  ourselves 
and  try  to  view  this  matter  from  more  than  one  side. 

We  shall  have  done  our  work  but  badly  so  far  if 
we  have  not  made  it  clear  that  Erasmus  believed 
in  his  right  to  bring  all  human  institutions  to  judg- 
ment at  the  bar  of  his  own  mind  and  conscience. 
Nothing  which  offended  his  own  sense  of  right  could 
be  wholly  acceptable  to  him.  In  so  far  he  was  an 
individual,  and  claimed  his  right  as  such.  As  an  in- 
dividual, with  a  mind  and  conscience  of  his  own,  he 
had  a  right,  not  only  to  have  opinions  upon  every 
subject  of  human  interest,  but  to  express  them. 
There  was  no  call  upon  him,  any  more  than  upon  a 
hundred  others,  to  address  himself  thus  to  kings, 
princes,  prelates,  popes,  inquisitors,  and  instruct 
them  as  to  their  duty  in  a  great  public  crisis.  He 
did  this  out  of  some  impelling  sense  of  duty  and 
of  right.  If  we  may  put  any  confidence  in  anything 
he  ever  said  or  did,  we  may  rely  upon  this:  that  he 
felt  himself  the  spokesman  of  a  cause  greater  than 
himself, — the  cause  of  a  free  and  sane  scholarship. 

He  was  an  individual,  but  of  the  fifteenth,  not  of 


1519]  Correspondence  33^ 

the  eighteenth  century.  The  great  word  of  deliver- 
ance to  the  modern  mind,  the  "  cogito  ergo  sum,'' 
had  not  yet  been  spoken.  Man  was  still  content  to 
think  of  himself  as  hemmed  in  by  standards  of 
thought  and  action  not  created  for  him  by  his  own 
mind,  but  given  to  him  as  a  part  of  his  human  in- 
heritance from  the  traditions  of  the  past.  No  estim- 
ate of  individual  force  can  be  complete  without 
this  limitation.  If  Erasmus  had  lived  in  the  eight- 
eenth century,  he  might  have  been  a  Voltaire ;  but 
he  was  not  living  in  the  eighteenth  century.  He 
saw  where  his  time  was  out  of  joint,  but  he  did  not 
believe  himself  called  upon  to  set  it  right.  His 
function  was  only  to  point  out  the  evils  and,  so  far 
as  he  could,  to  appeal  to  those  in  authority  to 
remedy  them. 

A  man  merely  timid  and  nothing  more  could  have 
found  a  far  easier  way  to  keep  himself  safe  from  any 
danger  of  persecution.  He  might  simply  have  kept 
silent,  and  no  one  could  have  said  it  was  his  duty  to 
speak  out.  It  required  a  very  considerable  exercise 
of  courage  to  say  even  as  much  as  Erasmus  was 
willing  to  say,  in  a  day  when  Savonarola  had  so 
lately  been  done  to  death  for  merely  attempting  to 
set  up  in  Florence  a  kingdom  of  Christ  without  the 
help  of  the  pope.  The  arm  of  the  Inquisition  was 
long,  its  watch  was  vigilant,  and  its  weapons  were 
subtle.  A  man  who  valued  merely  his  own  peace 
of  mind  would  hardly  be  likely  to  incur  its  displeas- 
ure. So  far  we  may  go  in  granting  to  Erasmus  the 
quality  of  courage.  He  knew  he  was  making 
enemies   among  powerful  vested  interests.     If  his 


332  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

principles  of  sound  learning  and  reasonable  criticism 
were  to  prevail,  then,  as  he  frequently  said,  the 
profits  of  a  vast  body  of  place-holders  and  traders 
in  all  sacred  things  were  going  to  be  diminished, 
and  they  would  not  suffer  this  without  making  a 
great  demonstration  of  their  power. 

On  the  other  hand,  nothing  was  farther  from  his 
nature  than  any  kind  of  open  rupture  with  esta- 
blished forms  of  organisation.  His  hatred  of  war 
extended  to  the  world  of  institutions.  Revolution 
was  abhorrent  to  him,  because  he  thought  its  evils 
were  greater  than  any  advantage  it  might  bring. 
The  moment  he  fancied  he  saw  this  spectre  of  re- 
volution, even  in  the  far  distance,  he  was  impelled 
to  modify  and  explain  and  warn  until  he  had,  for 
the  moment,  satisfied  his  sense  of  what  was  wise 
and  prudent. 

The  genius  of  Erasmus  was  eminently  critical,  not 
constructive.  His  misfortune  was  to  live  at  a  crisis 
when  the  merely  critical  attitude  would  no  longer 
serve.  The  struggle  for  new  construction  was  be- 
ginning, and  there  was  where  Erasmus  began  to  fail. 
Men  were  looking  to  him  for  leadership.  Probably 
he  grossly  exaggerates  the  degree  to  which  all  the 
criticism  of  the  day  was  charged  upon  him.  That 
exaggeration  was  nothing  more  than  we  might  ex- 
pect from  his  nervous  vanity  and  his  uncontrollable 
impulse  to  make  literature  whenever  he  took  pen  in 
hand.  Still  it  contains  just  this  germ  of  truth :  that 
the  world  of  scholars  felt  his  power  and  would  have 
been  glad  to  follow  his  lead  if  he  had  chosen  to  take 
a  leader's  place. 


I5I9]  Correspondence  333 

How  natural  the  expectation  was  that  Erasmus 
would  do  this  we  may  see  from  an  entry  in  the 
diary  of  Albert  Durer.'  It  was  the  year  1521. 
Luther  on  his  return  from  Worms  had  been  spirited 
away,  no  one  knew  whither.  Rumours  of  his  death 
were  spread  abroad  and  carried  terror  to  his  numer- 
ous followers.  The  simple-hearted  painter  who  the 
year  before  had  visited  Erasmus  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries was  overwhelmed  with  dismay.  In  the  midst 
of  his  prosaic  little  jottings  down  of  travels,  paint- 
ings, presents,  and  petty  bargainings  he  suddenly 
breaks  out  into  a  wail  of  despair: 

"  Ah  God  !  is  Luther  dead  ;  who  will  henceforth  so 
clearly  set  forth  the  Gospel  to  us?  Ah  God!  what 
might  he  not  have  written  in  the  next  ten  or  twenty 
years  !  Oh  !  all  ye  pious  Christian  men,  help  me  ear- 
nestly to  pray  and  mourn  for  this  God-inspired  man,  and 
pray  to  God  that  he  send  us  another  enlightened  man. 

"  Oh  !  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam,  where  art  thou  ?  Be- 
hold what  the  unjust  tyranny  of  earthly  power,  the  might 
of  darkness,  can  do.  Hear,  thou  champion  of  Christ  ! 
ride  forth  by  the  side  of  the  Lord  Christ ;  defend  the 
truth  ;  gain  the  martyr's  crown  !  As  it  is,  thou  art  but 
a  frail  old  man.  I  have  heard  thee  say  thou  hadst  given 
thyself  but  a  couple  more  years  of  active  service  ;  spend 
them,  I  pray,  to  the  profit  of  the  Gospel  and  the  true 
Christian  faith  and  believe  me  the  gates  of  Hell,  the 
See  of  Rome,  as  Christ  has  said,  will  not  prevail  against 
thee.  And  though  thou  becomest  like  thy  master  Christ 
and  bearest  shame  from  the  liars  of  this  world  and  so 


'  Albrecht  DUrer's   Tagebuch  der  Reise  in  die  Niederlande.     Ed. 
Fr.  Leitschuh,  1884,  pp.  83,  84. 


334  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1518- 

diest  a  little  earlier,  yet  wilt  thou  so  much  the  sooner 
pass  from  death  unto  life  and  be  glorified  in  Christ. 
For  if  thou  shalt  drink  of  the  cup  he  drank  of,  so  wilt 
thou  reign  with  him  and  judge  with  equity  them  that 
have  done  foolishness.  O  Erasmus  !  stand  by  us,  that 
God  may  praise  thee,  as  is  written  of  David  ;  for  thou 
art  mighty  and  thou  canst  slay  Goliath  ;  for  God  stands 
by  the  holy  Christian  churches,  as  he  stands  also  among 
the  Romans,  according  to  his  divine  will." 

Doubtless  this  heartfelt  petition  of  the  excellent 
Diirer  represents  the  first  impulse  of  many  an  honest 
soul  who  thought  of  Erasmus  as  a  man  straightfor- 
ward as  himself,  and  without  any  special  knowledge 
of  him  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  here  was  the 
natural  leader  of  a  redeemed  generation.  No  such 
illusion  could  long  affect  anyone  who  had  come  to 
know  him  in  his  true  character. 

It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  imagine  what  Erasmus 
would  have  done  if  his  personal  safety  had  been 
seriously  brought  into  question.  It  is  not  impos- 
sible that,  if  the  issue  of  retraction  or  punishment 
had  ever  been  squarely  presented  to  him  by  any 
authority  capable  of  enforcing  its  judgment,  he 
might  have  risen  to  a  higher  plane  of  action  than 
he  was  ever  in  fact  called  upon  to  reach.  Such 
attacks  as  he  had  to  meet  were  wholly  from  indi- 
viduals, representing  no  recognised  authority  either 
of  Church  or  State,  and  his  defence  was  always  that 
the  highest  persons  in  both  these  worlds  had  ap- 
proved him.  This  judgment  is  at  all  events  more 
favourable  than  Erasmus  was  sometimes  inclined  to 


1519]  Correspondence  335 

demand  for  himself.     Writing  to  Richard  Pace  in 
the  critical  year  1521  he  says  ' : 

"What  help  could  I  give  Luther,  by  making  myself 
the  companion  of  his  danger,  except  that  two  men  should 
perish  instead  of  one  ?  I  cannot  wonder  enough  at  the 
temper  in  which  he  has  written,  and  surely  he  has 
brought  great  enmity  upon  the  friends  of  sound  learn- 
ing. He  has  given  us  many  splendid  sayings  and  warn- 
ings ;  but  would  that  he  had  not  spoiled  his  good  things 
by  his  intolerable  faults.  But  even  if  everything  he 
wrote  had  been  right,  I  had  no  intention  of  putting  my 
head  in  danger  for  the  sake  of  the  truth.  It  is  n't  every 
one  that  has  the  strength  for  martyrdom,  and  I  sadly 
fear  that  if  any  tumult  should  arise,  I  should  follow  the 
example  of  Peter.  I  obey  the  decrees  of  emperor  and 
pope  when  they  are  right,  because  that  is  my  duty  ; 
when  they  are  wrong  I  bear  it,  because  that  is  the  safe 
plan.  This  I  believe  to  be  permitted  even  to  good  men 
if  there  is  no  hope  of  improvement." 

There  was  precisely  the  point.  Erasmus  was 
ready  to  bear  the  ills  of  the  world  because  he  saw 
no  power  at  hand  disposed  to  remedy  them.  When 
others  began  to  take  the  remedy  into  their  own 
hands,  then  he  could  see  in  their  efforts  only  riot, 
confusion,  sedition,  and  all  their  attendant  brood  of 
horrors. 

'iiiz',  651-C. 


CHAPTER  IX 

DEFINITE  BREACH  WITH  THE  REFORMING  PARTIES 
— HUTTEN'S  "  EXPOSTULATIO  "AND  ERASMUS' 
"  SPONGIA  " 

152O-1523 

WE  have  followed  the  course  of  Erasmus' 
thought  during  these  first  critical  years, 
15 18  and  1 5 19,  when  the  purpose  of  the  Lutheran 
movement  was  shaping  itself  into  a  definite  policy. 
It  could  not  be  said  that  Luther  had  at  the  outset 
any  "  programme  "  whatever.  His  leadership  was 
to  be  defined  by  the  resistless  logic  of  the  events 
which  were  now  following  in  swift  succession,  each 
leading  to  the  next  with,  compelling  force.  In  1518 
Luther  had  gone  as  far  as  Augsburg  to  meet  the 
papal  legate  Cajetanus,  who  had  simply  ordered  him 
to  retract.  Luther  had  replied  that  he  was  ready 
to  be  instructed,  but  until  better  informed,  he  was 
bound  by  the  word  of  God  and  could  not  think  other- 
wise than  as  he  did.  He  had  got  safely  out  of 
Augsburg,  but  never  again  risked  himself  within  the 
papal  grasp.  In  15 19  he  had  accepted  the  challenge 
of  John  Eck  of  Ingolstadt,  one  of  the  most  skilful 
disputants  of  the  day  according  to  the  scholastic 
method,  to  meet  him  at  Leipzig  under  the  pro- 

336 


1523]      Breach  with  the  Reformers        337 

tection  of  Duke  George  of  Saxony  and  there  discuss 
the  issues  presented  by  the  Theses.  So  long  as  the 
discussion  had  kept  to  the  traditional  lines  of  medi- 
aeval argumentation  Luther  had  felt  himself  at  a  dis- 
advantage. He  had  chafed  under  this  feeling  and 
finally  had  allowed  himself  to  be  entrapped  into 
that  magnificent  burst  of  passion  in  which  he  had 
declared  that  in  the  writings  of  the  condemned 
heretic,  John  Hus,  there  was  much  that  was  "  right 
Christian  and  evangelical."  For  the  first  time  and 
partly  without  his  own  will  he  had  said  that  the 
papacy  was  not  an  essential  element  of  the  church 
organisation. 

Henceforth  there  was  no  room  for  compromise. 
The  papacy,  now  fairly  aroused  to  the  magnitude 
of  the  situation,  replied  in  1520,  at  Eck's  prompting, 
with  its  last  weapon,  the  bull  of  excommunication. 
This  weapon  fell  absolutely  harmless.  The  aca-. 
demic  youth  of  Wittenberg,  with  Luther  at  their 
head,  marched  in  festive  procession  to  the  Elster- 
gate,  kindled  a  bonfire,  and  threw  into  it  the  offend- 
ing document.  But  this  was  not  all.  Papal  bulls 
had  often  met  this  fate  before,  without  serious  loss 
of  prestige  for  the  authority  which  lay  behind  them. 
This  time,  however,  not  merely  the  bull  in  question, 
but  also  a  copy  of  the  Canon  Law,  the  whole  body 
of  legal  authority  on  which  the  power  to  issue  bulls 
rested,  was  committed  to  the  flames.  That  meant, 
not  merely  that  Luther  and  all  who  supported  him 
refused  to  obey  this  particular  decree,  but  that  they 
proposed  to  emancipate  themselves,  once  for  all, 
from  the  control  of  the  whole  system  which  it  repre- 


33^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

sented.  With  this  step  the  Lutheran  movement 
passed  from  the  stage  of  Reformation  to  the  stage 
of  Revolution. 

At  this  point  the  eminently  constructive  nature  of 
Luther's  genius  began  to  display  itself.  He  had 
not  rejected  one  authority  in  order  to  escape  all 
authority.  He  had  not  thrown  aside  one  ecclesias- 
tical order,  to  leave  the  Church  without  any  order  at 
all.  In  those  splendid  proclamations  of  the  year 
1520,  "  The  Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church," 
the  "  Address  to  the  Christian  Nobility  of  Ger- 
many," and  the  "  Freedom  of  the  Christian  Man," 
he  unfolded  his  programme  for  a  new  and  purified 
church  order  on  the  basis  of  the  Christian  state. 
Luther's  apologists  in  Germany  have  sought  to  save 
him  from  the  charge,  dreadful  to  German  ears,  of 
being  a  revolutionist.  Let  us,  citizens  of  a  nation 
to  which  revolution  has  meant  only  the  entrance 
into  a  larger  and  a  better-ordered  public  life,  admit 
frankly  that  the  action  of  North  Germany  in  the 
years  following  1520  was,  so  far  as  church  matters 
were  concerned,  revolutionary,  and  that  only  as 
such  can  it  be  justified  or  understood.  True,  it  was 
defended  then  and  has  been  defended  ever  since  as 
being  merely  a  return  to  an  order  of  things  once 
realised  in  the  early  Church.  But  when  a  body  of 
institutions  have  held  their  own  for  a  thousand 
years  their  overthrow  cannot  be  disguised  by  any 
gentle  figures  of  speech  about  mere  reformation  and 
restoration. 

That  the  world  of  Europe  in  1520  felt  itself  in- 
volved in  a  work  of  revolution  is  abundantly  proved 


1523]      Breach  with  the  Reformers        339 

by  the  action  of  every  party  concerned.  That  the 
papacy  should  so  regard  it  was  self-evident.  All 
reformation  which  should  go  beyond  the  stage  of 
merely  commending  virtue  and  condemning  vice 
must  seem  to  it  revolutionary.  Its  fundamental 
proposition  was  that  all  which  was  had,  in  its  es- 
sence, always  been,  and  that  every  innovation  must 
therefore  tend  to  destroy  something  essential  to  the 
very  nature  of  the  Church.  From  the  moment 
when  the  papal  government  began  at  all  to  compre- 
hend the  meaning  of  the  German  revolt,  it  began  to 
treat  it  as  revolution. 

More  striking  still,  however,  is  the  rapidity  with 
which  all  the  restless  elements  of  society  recog- 
nised that  here  was  an  idea  closely  akin  to  their 
own  instinct  of  revolution.  Hardly  had  Luther's 
first  propositions,  temperate  and  modest  as  they 
were,  been  put  forth,  when,  in  his  immediate  cir- 
cle of  influence,  men  were  found  who  were  ready 
to  draw  the  last  logical  consequences  from  them. 
If  it  was  true  that  men  were  justified  in  the  sight 
of  God  solely  by  faith,  then  obviously  there  was 
no  need  of  any  mediating  agency  whatever.  Away 
with  all  forms,  priesthoods,  ceremonies,  and  sacra- 
ments as  so  much  useless  rubbish  piled  up  by  cen- 
turies of  wrong!  If  it  was  true  that  God's  dealing 
with  man  was  direct  and  not  indirect,  then  why 
might  not  men  look  for  immediate  inspiration  of 
the  divine  spirit  as  of  old  before  all  this  machin- 
ery of  priests  and  forms  had  been  invented?  If  the 
word  of  God  was  not  to  be  bound  by  a  papacy,  why 
let  it  be  bound  by  an  ancient  book,  in  which,  as  was 


340  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

well  known,  there  was  a  plenty  of  errors  and  falsi- 
ties ?  Had  God,  then,  ceased  to  communicate  with 
man  ?  All  these  questions  were  asked  by  men  of 
thought  and  education ;  and  the  answers  were  not 
slow  in  coming.  They  came,  as  in  times  of  great 
social  unrest  they  always  come,  in  the  form  of  wild 
theories  and  passionate  claims,  none  of  which  was 
quite  without  a  basis  of  reason,  but  which,  taken 
together,  called  up  a  ghastly  spectre  that  could  bear 
no  other  name  than  Revolution.  The  message  of 
deliverance  from  the  bondage  of  personal  sin  with- 
out the  aid  of  a  corrupt  and  greedy  church  establish- 
ment swelled  rapidly  into  a  summons  to  deliverance 
from  every  form  of  restraint  and  oppression.  The 
men  of  theory,  the  Carlstadts  and  the  Miinzers,  car- 
ried the  word  to  the  men  of  action  and  of  suffering. 
From  1522  to  1524  the  gospel  of  freedom  through 
faith  was  being  worked  over  to  suit  the  needs  of  the 
vast  peasant  population  of  Middle  and  Western  Ger- 
many. In  1524  and  1525  it  burst  out  in  the  furious 
cry  of  these  oppressed  classes  for  equality  of  rights 
as  the  social  expression  of  the  equality  of  salvation. 
Subtle  economic  causes  were,  as  always,  at  work 
and  were  leading  in  the  same  direction. 

Just  as  the  papacy  was  quick  to  recognise  the 
revolutionary  meaning  of  the  Lutheran  propositions, 
so  Luther  recognised  how  essentially  revolutionary 
were  all  these  wider  movements  which,  quite  against 
his  will,  had  made  use  of  his  initiative  to  gain  head- 
way for  themselves.  In  his  retreat  on  the  Wartburg 
after  the  Diet  at  Worms  he  heard  of  the  radical  do- 
ings of  Carlstadt  and  the  prophets  from  Zwickau  at 


1523]      Breach  with  the  Reformers        341 

Wittenberg.  At  once  he  saw  the  danger  and  hur- 
ried to  meet  it.  He  succeeded  in  purifying  Witten- 
berg from  the  taint  of  fanaticism  only  to  scatter  its 
seeds  far  and  wide  over  the  land.  Henceforth  it  be- 
came perhaps  the  most  important  and  distinctly  the 
most  difficult  problem  of  the  Lutheran  party  to  show 
to  the  world  its  conservative  and  constructive  side, 
without  withdrawing  for  a  moment  from  its  original 
position  of  hostility  to  the  papal  system. 

And,  finally,  from  the  political  side,  the  revolu- 
tionary tendencies  of  the  Lutheran  position  were  no 
less  clearly  visible.  Luther's  perfectly  sound  in- 
stinct had  shown  him  from  the  first  that  the  German 
people  were  not  to  be  carried  away  by  any  abstrac- 
tions of  democracy.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
there  any  hope  of  reviving  the  ancient  authority  of 
the  emperor.  Luther's  appeal  to  the  German  no- 
bility was  based  on  the  fact  that  whatever  political 
virtue  there  was  in  Germany  was  to  be  found  in  its 
princes,  and  the  response  of  the  princes  proved  them 
equal  to  the  emergency.  The  call  to  defend  the  new 
religion  involved  also  the  prospect  of  complete  de- 
liverance from  all  imperial  control. 

The  full  meaning  of  the  Lutheran  movement  is, 
of  course,  far  clearer  to  us  than  it  could  have  been 
to  anyone  in  the  year  1520,  and  yet  as  early  as  1525 
every  one  of  the  points  of  view  just  indicated  had 
been  clearly  recognised  by  every  thoughtful  ob- 
server. The  tendencies  were  plain;  the  question 
was,  how  soon  and  how  far  would  tendencies  develop 
into  facts. 

In  such  a  mortal  strife  as  this  where  was  there 


342  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

room  for  poor  Erasmus  ?  The  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion is  the  history  of  the  seventeen  remaining  years 
of  his  life — years  as  full  of  activity  as  any  that  had 
gone  before  them.  Protest  as  he  might  that  this 
struggle  was  none  of  his,  it  is  evident  that  it  formed 
the  real  undertone  of  his  thought  and  drew  from  him 
the  utterances  by  which  his  character  as  a  public 
man  has  ever  since  been  estimated.  We  may,  with- 
out unduly  stretching  the  meaning  of  his  changing 
attitude  towards  the  reform,  divide  it  into  three 
stages.  Until  1520  we  feel  the  note  of  sympathy 
and  the  desire  merely  to  restrain  excesses.  After 
that  year,  and  increasingly  as  the  economic  and  social 
results  began  to  appear,  we  find  the  attitude  of 
direct  hostility  becoming  more  pronounced.  Fi- 
nally, under  the  increasing  pressure  to  justify  him- 
self in  this  hostility,  we  find  Erasmus  laying 
down  in  more  formal  shape  his  philosophical  and 
theological  position  as  against  that  of  the  Lu- 
theran party. 

The  group  of  letters  cited  above  reflect  an  ag- 
itated, nervous  uncertainty  of  mind  on  Erasmus' 
part.  They  are  filled  largely  with  negations,  so  ar- 
ranged as  to  balance  each  other  with  considerable 
success.  They  leave  on  our  minds  the  impression 
of  a  dual  personality:  on  the  one  hand  a  man  child- 
ishly sensitive  to  abuse  and  fancying  that  every  mis- 
directed shaft  of  the  popular  wit  or  feeling  was  aimed 
at  him ;  on  the  other  hand,  a  man  of  wide  and  clear 
vision,  with  an  outlook  over  the  whole  field  of  hu- 
man interests  and  with  a  perfectly  sound  compre- 
hension of  the  ultimate  principles  by  which  these 


p.  ^if^optime.     Lei  me  miseresceret,  hi  tain  virutenter  rem 


I 


EXIMIO  THEOLOGO  JO. 

.,    .  LANGIO.  \ 

^       I 
S.  p.  ^ir''c 

gessissef,  ita  tractatur  etiam  a  suis  Anglis.  Habet  et  Hispania  I.eum 
alterum.  Zuniga  quidam  edidit  librum  ut  audio  satis  virulentum 
p  adv£rsus  Fabrum  ac  me.  Vetuerat  Cardinalis  Toletanus  defunctus. 
Eo  mortuo  prodidit  sua  venena.  Opus  nondum  vidi.  Id  caveat  ne 
liber  veniat  in  manus  meas.  Nescio  quern  finem  hie  tumultus  sit 
habiturus.  Nam  omnino  res  ad  seditionem  spectat,  a  qua  semper 
abhorrui.  Si  necesse  est  ut  oriantur  scandala,  certe  a  me  [non] 
proficisci.  Devotis  animis  conspirant  isti,  ac  summorum  regum  aulas 
oppugnant,  ac  vereor,  ne  expugnent.  De  Philippo,  CEcolampadio 
quod  scio  cognoveram  ex  aliorum  litteris.  Utramque  epistolam  tuam 
accept.  Bene  vale  vir  in  domino  mihi  colende. 
tovANll,  postrid.  Cal.  Aug.  !.      O 

.ERaSMJUS  ex  animo  tuus*^ 

TO  THE  DISTINGUISHED  THE0L0GI.\N 

JOHANNES  LANGE. 
Greeting. 

Most  Excellent  Sir  : 

I  should  be  sorry  for  Lee,  if  he  had  not  been  so  violent  in 
the  matter  ;  so  badly  is  he  treated  even  by  his  own  Englishmen.  In 
Spain  there  is  a  second  Lee.  A  certain  Zuniga  has,  I  hear,  published 
a  tolerably  savage  book  against  Faber  and  me.  The  late  Cardinal  of 
Toledo  had  prohibited  it,  but  now  that  the  cardinal  is  dead,  he  has 
given  forth  his  poison.  I  have  not  seen  the  work,  and  let  him 
beware  that  it  does  not  come  into  my  hands  !  I  know  not  what  will 
be  the  end  of  this  disturbance.  Everything  points  towards  revolu- 
tion, a  thing  I  have  always  abhorred.  If  it  must  be  that  offences 
come,  at  any  rate  they  shall  [not]  come  from  me.  Those  people  are 
conspiring  with  all  their  might ;  they  are  besieging  the  courts  of  the 
most  potent  kings  and  I  fear  they  will  overcome  them.  All  that  I 
know  about  Philip  and  CEcolampadius  I  have  learned  from  the 
letters  of  others.     Both  of  your  letters  I  have  received.  ^ 

Farewell,  beloved  in  the  Lord. 

Your  most  devoted 
^      i       \      ^  ERASMU& 


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1523]      Breach  with  the  Reformers        343 

interests  must  be  regulated.  His  chief  source  of 
difficulty  was  his  failure  to  admit  the  distinctions 
between  the  destructive  and  the  constructive  forces 
of  the  reform.  While  Luther  was  using  all  his 
energies  to  make  clear  to  the  world  that  what  he 
aimed  at  was  reconstruction,  Erasmus  persisted  in 
confounding  in  one  sweeping  condemnation  all  the 
elements  of  disturbance  he  saw  abroad  in  the  world. 
As  he  had  connected  Luther  and  Reuchlin  in  his 
declarations  of  ignorance  and  hostility,  so,  as  time 
went  on,  he  mingled  Lutherans,  Anabaptists, 
Zwinglians,  and  all  the  swarm  of  popular  agitators  in 
his  indictments.  Yet  he  constantly  lets  it  appear 
that  he  knew  as  well  as  anyone  the  deep-seated 
distinctions  in  the  reforming  groups.  He  chose  to 
confuse  them  in  his  public  utterances,  in  order  to 
keep  himself  right  with  that  great  Establishment 
which  was  the  mortal  enemy  of  them  all. 

Meanwhile  the  practical  problem  of  the  Lutheran 
reform  was  shaping  itself  rapidly  in  accordance  with 
the  whole  previous  development  of  the  German 
people.  The  death  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  was 
an  event  of  slight  importance,  excepting  as  it  opened 
the  way  for  one  of  those  great  electoral  contests, 
which  from  time  to  time  came  to  remind  the  Ger- 
man nation  of  its  own  peculiar  political  character. 
We  must  dismiss  orice  for  all  the  fancy  that  the 
elected  emperor  resembled,  except  in  the  vaguest 
fashion,  the  great  hereditary  monarchs  of  England, 
France,  or  Spain.  So  far  as  his  imperial  quality  was 
concerned,  he  had  long  since  become  the  merest 
anachronism.     He  was  emperor  of  nothing  but  a 


344  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

title ;  and  he  owed  his  title  to  a  group  of  princes 
whose  liberties  he  was  bound  to  respect,  even  to  the 
point  of  self-destruction.  Territorially,  he  might  be 
strong  or  weak,  according  to  the  personal  sover- 
eignty which  he  held  before  he  became  emperor. 
Politically  he  had  as  much  weight  as  he  could  per- 
sonally command,  and  no  more.  He  might  be  a 
German  or  he  might  not. 

The  electoral  canvass  of  1519-20  was  the  most 
elaborate  the  empire  had  ever  seen.  The  kings  of 
Spain,  France,  and  England  were  all,  at  one  time 
or  another,  among  the  candidates.  A  German  na- 
tional party,  which  saw  the  hope  of  the  nation  in  a 
policy  of  separation  from  all  "  imperial  "  interests, 
was  eager  for  a  purely  German  emperor  and  put  for- 
ward as  its  candidate  the  venerable  Frederic,  Prince- 
Elector  of  Saxony,  the  immediate  sovereign  of 
Luther.  If  Frederic  had  acted  promptly  and  put 
himself  decidedly  at  the  head  of  this  German  na- 
tional party  it  seems  as  if  he  might  have  been 
elected.  He  hesitated,  declined  on  grounds  of  per- 
sonal distrust,  and  finally  gave  his  electoral  vote  for 
that  one  among  the  foreign  candidates  who  seemed 
least  likely  to  abuse  the  constitutional  privileges  of 
the  German  princes. 

Charles  V.,  grandson  of  Maximilian  through  that 
Archduke  Philip  to  whom  Erasmus  had  written  his 
panegyric  in  1504,  grandson  also  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  of  Spain  through  their  daughter  Joanna, 
grandson  again  of  that  Mary  of  Burgundy  who  had 
carried  the  Low  Countries  as  her  most  precious 
dower  to  her  husband  Maximilian,  was  a  youth  of 


1523]      Breach  with  the  Reformers        345 

twenty,  a  German  only  by  virtue  of  a  strain  of 
badly  diluted  Habsburg  blood,  educated  under 
Spanish  influence  in  the  Low  Countries,  ignorant 
of  the  German  tongue,  and  totally  unsympathetic 
with  the  character  and  traditions  of  the  German 
people.  The  very  conception  of  the  German  state 
as  a  loose  federation  of  practically  independent 
principalities  was  utterly  foreign  to  his  training  and 
his  inheritance. 

The  election  of  Charles  V.  gave  courage  to  all 
defenders  of  the  existing  church  order.  As  to  his 
personal  orthodoxy  there  could  be  no  question 
whatever.  Nor  was  there  any  more  reason  to  doubt 
his  loyalty  to  the  traditions  of  his  family  as  to  the 
duty  of  a  Christian  ruler  toward  the  institutions  of 
what  passed  for  Christianity.  If  there  had  been 
any  room  for  question  on  these  points,  it  would 
have  been  removed  by  Charles's  action  in  the  Low 
Countries  in  the  very  first  years  of  the  Lutheran 
revolt.  He  had  taken  hold  of  the  matter  with  a 
strong  hand  and  demonstrated  his  loyalty  by  prompt 
action  against  heretical  books  and  persons.  His 
first  great  public  declaration  of  policy,  however,  was 
at  his  first  appearance  on  German  soil  at  the  famous 
Diet  at  Worms  in  152 1.  It  was,  properly,  regarded 
as  a  piece  of  liberality  that  Luther  was  invited  to 
come  personally  to  Worms  and  defend  himself  be- 
fore the  emperor  and  the  legate  of  Pope  Leo  X., 
that  same  Aleander  who  had  been  a  fellow-worker 
with  Erasmus  in  the  Aldine  workshop  at  Venice. 
Luther  was  already  a  condemned  heretic.  The 
only  question  was  whether  the  Empire  as  such  would 


346  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

ratify  the  action  of  the  pope  and  lend  its  arm  to 
enforce  the  papal  decrees. 

Luther's  journey  from  Wittenberg  and  his  appear- 
ance in  Worms  were  a  demonstration  of  his  popular- 
ity throughout  Northern  Germany.  Charles  V., 
youth  as  he  was,  was  too  clever  a  politician  to  offend 
too  deeply  at  this  outset  of  his  reign  a  whole  people 
whose  services  he  might  at  any  moment  sorely  need. 
He  heard  Luther  with  patience,  he  respected  his 
safe-conduct,  and  let  him  return  to  Saxony  in  safety ; 
but  he  published  as  the  formal  decision  of  the  Diet 
the  Edict  of  Worms,  wherein  Luther  was  declared 
in  the  ban  of  the  Empire  as  he  was  already  in  the 
ban  of  the  Church,  and  his  books  were  condemned 
to  be  burned  wherever  found. 

The  Edict  of  Worms  defined  the  official  attitude 
of  the  Empire  towards  the  reform  from  this  time 
forth.  It  lacked  nothing  in  clearness  and  finality. 
Henceforth,  whoever  within  the  limits  of  the  Em- 
pire harboured  either  the  man  or  his  ideas  was 
subject  to  immediate  punishment.  The  question, 
however,  still  remained,  how  the  Edict  of  Worms 
was  to  be  enforced,  and  the  answer  to  that  question 
is  the  history  of  Germany  and  even  of  Europe  for 
the  next  generation.  Enough  for  our  present  pur- 
pose to  say  that  the  immediate  pressure  of  political 
and  military  demands  outside  of  Germany  compelled 
the  young  emperor  to  postpone  definite  aggressive 
action  against  the  Lutheran  party  until  the  course 
of  events  had  separated  the  whole  north  of  Ger- 
many from  all  but  a  nominal  connection  with  the 
Empire.      We   are   concerned   with   the   action    of 


1523]       Breach  with  the  Reformers        347 

Erasmus  upon  these  events  and  their  reaction  upon 
his  course  of  life. 

Erasmus  left  Louvain  in  1521.  As  to  his  motives 
in  this  change  we  are  as  much  in  the  dark  as  about 
any  of  his  former  migrations.  We  know  what  his 
critics  said  about  it  and  what  he  replied  to  their 
criticisms.  They  said  he  was  afraid  to  stay  in  a 
country  where  heretics  were  being  arrested  every 
day  and  where,  as  he  had  all  along  been  declaring, 
he  was  regarded  as  the  head  and  front  of  this  whole 
offending.  He  replied  that  this  was  pure  nonsense, 
as  could  be  clearly  proved  by  the  fact  that  after 
leaving  Louvain  he  still  lingered  for  several  months 
in  the  Low  Countries  before  taking  up  his  journey 
to  Basel.  He  went  to  Basel,  he  said,  for  the  same 
reasons  which  had  carried  him  thither  before  ; 
namely,  to  superintend  the  publication  of  some  of 
his  works. 

The  most  detailed  account  of  this  interval  be- 
tween Louvain  and  Basel  is  given  in  a  long  letter,' 
dated  in  1523,  to  Marcus  Laurinus,  dean  of  St. 
Donatian  at  Bruges.  The  tone  of  this  letter  is  that 
which  had  now  become  habitual  with  Erasmus, 
namely,  of  elaborate  defence  against  all  charges,  no 
matter  from  what  source,  which  could  in  any  way 
affect  his  loyalty  to  the  Roman  Church  on  the  one 
hand  or  to  his  own  principle  of  free  criticism  on  the 
other.  His  especial  grievance  is  the  charge  of 
cowardice  in  leaving  Louvain. 

"As  long  as  I  was  at  Louvain,"  he  writes,  "whenever 
I  went  to  Brussels  or  Mechlin,  though  I  had  promised 

'  iii.\  748. 


34^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

to  return  within  ten  days,  those  people,  who  are  ashamed 
of  nothing,  would  spread  a  rumour  that  I  had  run  away 
through  fear.  Then  when  I  was  taking  a  holiday  for 
my  health  at  Anderlech,  a  place  close  by  Brussels,  where 
the  king's  palace  is,  and  often  running  back  to  Louvain, 
— why  then,  I  was  in  hiding  !  Frequently,  I  was  at  the 
same  moment  down  with  a  hopeless  fever  at  Louvain  and 
had  fallen  from  my  horse  and  died  of  apoplexy  at  Brus- 
sels ;  and  this  at  a  time  when  I  was — thanks  be  to 
Christ  ! — never  better  in  my  life.  It  was  not  enough  to 
have  killed  the  hapless  Erasmus  once  for  all,  but  they 
must  needs  butcher  him  with  so  many  diseases,  slay  him 
with  such  a  variety  of  tortures  ! 

"  I  did  not  go  to  the  assembly  at  Worms, — or  as 
learned  men  are  now  beginning  to  call  it  at  '  Mutton- 
headtown,' — although  I  was  invited,  partly  because  I  did 
not  wish  to  be  involved  in  the  affair  of  Luther,  which 
was  then  violently  discussed  ;  partly  because  I  easily 
foresaw  that  in  such  a  great  sewage  of  princes  and  men 
of  various  races,  the  plague  could  not  fail  to  appear  as 
it  did  at  Cologne  when  the  emperor  was  first  there. 

"  When  the  emperor  came  back  to. Brussels,  there  was 
scarcely  a  day  that  I  did  not  ride  through  the  market- 
place and  past  the  court  and  often  I  was  about  the  court ; 
in  fact,  I  was  almost  more  a  resident  at  Brussels  than  at 
Anderlech.  I  daily  paid  my  compliments  to  the  bishops, 
though  ordinarily  I  was  not  overzealous  in  such  matters. 
I  dined  with  the  cardinal.  I  conversed  with  both 
nuncios ;  I  visited  ambassadors  and  they  called  upon 
me  at  Anderlech.  Never  in  my  life  was  I  less  in  con- 
cealment, never  more  openly  before  the  eyes  of  all  men. 
And  meanwhile  there  were  some  among  those  babblers 
who  wrote  to  Germany  that  Erasmus  was  somewhere  in 
hiding, — which  I  never   found  out  until  1  got  here  in 


1523]      Breach  with  the  Reformers        349 

Basel.  And  again  when  the  emperor  was  at  Brussels 
with  the  king  of  Denmark,  and  Thomas,  cardinal  of 
York,  was  there  as  ambassador  of  the  king  of  England, 
you  know  yourself,  even  if  I  had  kept  myself  to  your 
house,  how  much  in  hiding  I  should  have  been  ;  since 
you  had  all,  or  at  least  the  chief  dignitaries  of  the  court 
at  your  table  and  I  was  sitting  among  them  a  welcome 
guest,  as  I  believe,  to  them  all.  How  often  I  lunched 
or  dined  with  the  foremost  men,  even  Avith  the  king  of 
Denmark,  who  wanted  me  as  his  daily  table-companion  ! 
Where  did  I  not  go  riding,  often  in  company  with  you  ! 
At  what  festivity  of  the  great  people  was  I  not  present — 
now  at  the  imperial  court,  now  in  the  family  of  the  car- 
dinal of  York,  now  at  one  house,  now  at  another  !  Yet 
I  often  refused  invitations  ;  for  I  am  by  nature  a  home- 
lover  and  my  studies  require  a  home-keeping  life. 

*'  In  the  same  way  that  I  was  then  hiding,  I  afterward 
ran  away  !  For  six  whole  months  I  was  getting  ready 
for  my  journey  to  Basel  and  that  openly  before  all  men. 
Why,  the  emperor's  treasurer  paid  over  my  pension  be- 
fore it  was  due,  because  I  told  him  I  was  going  to  Basel ! 
Nor  was  the  reason  for  my  journey  unknown,  it  being 
the  same  for  which  I  had  already  so  often  gone  to  Basel 
before  I  became  afraid  of  those  heroes  !  .  .  .  I  was 
all  ready  to  start,  waiting  only  to  decide  upon  the  road 
and  to  have  a  safe  escort.  Meanwhile  I  had  to  collect 
money  in  divers  places  and  for  this  purpose  spent  six 
days  at  Louvain, — hiding  there  too,  of  course,  as  my 
custom  was, — at  an  inn  where  no  guests  ever  came,  so 
that  it  is  a  most  retired  place  !  It  is  at  the  sign  of  The 
Savage.  By  the  purest  accident  there  was  there  at  the 
time  Jerome  Aleander,  with  whom  I  lived  on  the  most 
friendly  terms,  sometimes  sitting  with  him  over  literary 
talk  until  far  into  the  night.     We  agreed  that  if  a  safe 


350  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

escort  should  offer,  we  would  journey  together.  Return- 
ing after  a  few  days  I  found  Aleander  getting  ready  to 
start,  just  as  I  was.  ...  It  was  my  birthday  and 
that  of  the  apostles  Simon  and  Jude." 

Having  thus  proved  that  up  to  the  very  moment 
of  his  departure  he  was  on  the  best  of  terms  with 
everyone  in  the  Low  Countries  from  whom  he 
could  have  anything  to  fear,  even  with  Aleander, 
the  archfiend  of  the  Lutherans,  Erasmus  goes  on 
to  describe  his  journey.  There  is  nothing  especially 
noteworthy  in  this  description.  It  is  the  same  old 
story  of  dangers  and  wearinesses  by  the  way,  of 
German  inns  and  German  stoves  and  the  troubles 
they  brought  him.  Yet  in  the  little  notes  of  per- 
sons whom  he  met  and  how  they  received  him  we 
get  some  of  the  most  significant  and  attractive 
glimpses  of  the  widespread  relations  of  Erasmus 
with  every  grade  of  scholarly  activity.  In  these 
accounts  of  journeys  occur  frequently  the  words 
sodalitium  and  fraternitas.  At  Strassburg  Jacob 
Spiegel,  an  imperial  secretary,  presented  him  to 
"  the  fraternity."  From  Schlettstadt  "  certain  of 
the  fraternity  "  escorted  him  to  Colmar.  These 
words  seem  to  refer  to  the  group  of  scholars  in  any 
city  and  give  us  a  pleasant  suggestion  of  the  grow- 
ing comradeship  of  learning  all  through  the  northern 
centres  of  culture. 

He  tells  us  how  warmly  he  was  received  at  Basel 
by  the  bishop,  the  magistrates,  and  other  chief  men 
of  the  church  and  the  university.  Everybody  knew 
that  he  was  there,  and  yet 


1523]      Breach  with  the  Reformers        351 

"  those  fools  were  spreading  the  story  that  I  had  gone 
over  to  Wittenberg.  Is  there  anything  they  would  be 
ashamed  of  ?  My  health  was  fairly  good  at  Basel  until 
the  rooms  began  to  be  cold.  When  I  found  that  this 
cold  was  unbearable  to  others,  I  suffered  a  moderate  fire 
to  be  built  now  and  then,  but  this  good-nature  cost  me 
dear.  Soon  a  vile  rheum  broke  out  and  thereupon  fol- 
lowed the  gravel." 

Then  his  digestion  went  to  pieces — until,  what  with 
one  thing  and  another,  he  was  wretched  enough 
"  to  suit  even  Nicholas  Egmund,"  his  Carmelite 
terror  at  Louvain. 

In  spite  of  his  pains,  however,  he  went  to  work 
and  kept  at  it  so  steadily  that  within  a  short  time 
he  finished  his  annotations  to  the  third  edition  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  did  the  whole  of  his  Para- 
phrase of  Matthew.  This  latter  work  he  sent  to  the 
emperor,  and  was  informed  that  it  had  been  re- 
ceived with  great  favour.  The  best  proof  of  this 
was,  that  at  a  moment  when  many  pensions  were 
being  taken  away  or  cut  down,  he  was  promised 
that  his  should  be  maintained  and  perhaps  even  in- 
creased. He  takes  this  occasion  to  defend  himself 
against  the  charge  of  staying  so  long  away  from  the 
emperor  through  fear,  as  was  alleged.  The  only 
thing  he  feared  was  that  he  might  be  called  upon 
to  write  against  Luther  "  by  one  whose  request 
could  not  be  denied.  Not  that  I  favoured  that 
seditious  affair,  being  as  I  am  a  man  who  shrinks 
from  all  controversy  by  a  certain  instinct  of  nature ; 
so  that  if  I  might  gain  a  landed  estate  by  a  lawsuit 
I  would  rather  lose  my  estate  than  push  my  claim." 


352  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

He  goes  on  in  this  strain  at  such  length  that  one 
can  hardly  avoid  the  conclusion  that  we  are  here 
touching  upon  the  real  reason  of  his  leaving  Lou- 
vain.  It  is  a  tolerably  safe  principle  that  when  Eras- 
mus is  especially  insistent  he  is  trying  to  make  the 
worse  appear  the  better  reason.  He  insists  that  he 
was  totally  unfit  for  such  work  of  controversy  and 
ends  up  by  saying  that  in  spite  of  all  this  he  would 
have  gone  back  to  meet  the  emperor  if  his  disease 
had  permitted.  Indeed  he  tried  the  journey,  got 
as  far  as  Schlettstadt,  broke  down  completely,  and 
barely  got  back  alive  to  Basel.  By  this  time  it  was 
too  late  to  see  the  emperor,  who  was  to  sail  for 
Spain  about  May  1st.  So  Erasmus  stayed  a  while 
longer  at  Basel,  restless  and  fidgeting  as  usual. 
Now  it  was  a  new  dream  of  Italy  that  haunted  him. 
He  was,  or  believed  himself  to  be,  or  wished  others 
to  believe  that  he  was,  invited  by  a  host  of  distin- 
guished well-wishers  there  to  come  and  take  up  his 
residence  among  them.  In  fact  he  made  a  journey 
to  Constance  with  his  young  friends  Eppendorf  and 
Beatus.  They  were  charmingly  entertained  by  John 
Botzheim,  a  canon  of  the  place,  and  we  owe  to  this 
visit  one  of  the  very  few  descriptions  of  natural 
scenery  which  Erasmus  has  left  us.  He  seems  for 
once  really  to  have  been  captivated  by  the  delight- 
ful situation  of  Constance,  the  beautiful  lake,  the 
course  of  the  Rhine,  "  holding  islands  in  its  smiling 
embrace,"  the  falls  at  Schaffhausen,  and  the  tower- 
ing Alps  looking  down  upon  the  whole  scene.  We 
may  well  believe  that,  at  least  when  he  wrote  these 
words,  the  sentiment  of  Italy  was  strong  upon  him. 


1523]      Breach  with  the  Reformers        353 

An  escort,  he  says,  was  just  ready  to  start  for  Trent. 
"  The  Alps  smiling  down  upon  me  close  at  hand 
beckoned  me  on.  My  friends  dissuaded  me,  but 
they  would  have  done  so  in  vain,  if  the  gravel,  that 
potent  orator,  had  not  persuaded  me  to  go  back  to 
Basel  and  fly  up  into  my  nest  again." 

He  remained  three  weeks  at  Constance  in  great 
suffering,  took  ship  as  far  as  Schaffhausen,  and  so 
back  as  fast  as  he  could  ride  to  Basel.  I  confess  to 
a  strong  impression  that  these  two  trips,  to  Schlett- 
stadt  and  to  Constance,  were  merely  excursions, 
such  as  Erasmus  was  constantly  making  from  any 
point  where  he  happened  to  be  living,  and  that  he 
had  no  more  intention  of  going  to  Italy  in  the  one 
case  than  of  returning  to  Louvain  in  the  other. 
Yet  one  would  equally  hesitate  to  say  that  he  had  a 
fixed  purpose  of  remaining  permanently  at  Basel. 

On  his  return  Erasmus  enjoyed  a  genuine  sensa- 
tion, which  seems  almost  to  have  marked  an  epoch  in 
his  life.  This  seemed  the  favourable  moment  to  open 
a  package  of  choice  Burgundy,  sent  to  him  some 
time  before  by  the  episcopal  coadjutor  of  Basel. 
"  At  the  first  taste  it  did  not  wholly  please  the  pal- 
ate, but  the  night  brought  out  the  native  quality  of 
the  wine."  He  felt  himself  a  new  man.  He  had 
always  believed  that  his  disease  was  brought  on  by 
vile  sour  and  adulterated  wines,  "  worthy  to  be 
drunk  by  heretics,  punishment  fit  for  the  worst 
malefactor."  He  had  tried  Burgundian  wines  be- 
fore, but  they  were  harsh  and  heating.  This  was 
just  right,  neither  sweet  nor  sour,  but  pleasant,  and 
so  on.     He  bursts  out  into  a  eulogy  of  Burgundy, 


354  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

that  happy  land,  "  worthy  to  be  called  the  mother 
of  men,  since  thou  hast  milk  like  this  in  thy 
breasts!  "  "I  tell  you,  my  dear  Laurinus,  it  would 
take  little  to  persuade  me  to  move  over  for  good 
into  Burgundy.  '  For  the  wine's  sake  ? '  you  ask. 
Why,  I  would  rather  migrate  to  Ireland  than  try 
another  attack  of  the  gravel."  This  sends  him  off 
again  into  declarations  that  he  is  everywhere  a 
welcome  guest. 

The  point  of  all  this  seems  to  be  that  he  wishes 
to  have  it  quite  clear  that  while  it  is  on  the  one 
hand  perfectly  safe  for  him  to  go  or  stay  where  he 
will,  he  is,  on  the  other  hand,  equally  free  from  any 
permanent  ties  anywhere.  Someone  had  reported 
that  he  had  bought  a  house  and  acquired  the  right 
of  citizenship  at  Basel.  This  he  denies.  To  be 
sure,  the  house  in  which  he  is  now  living  had  been 
offered  him  by  some  friends,  but  he  has  not  ac- 
cepted it.  As  for  citizenship,  he  has  never  so  much 
as  dreamed  of  it.  "A  certain  person  of  importance 
at  Zurich  has  more  than  once  written  to  offer  me 
the  right  of  citizenship  there.  I  wondered  why  he 
should  do  this,  and  replied  that  I  preferred  to  be  a 
citizen  of  the  world,  rather  than  of  any  one  city." 

Once  set  going  on  this  subject  it  seems  as  if  Eras- 
mus could  not  stop.  He  now  pays  his  respects  to 
those  who  reported,  with  some  reason,  he  says,  that 
he  was  thinking  of  going  to  France.  Having  found 
the  secret  of  his  disease  in  the  badness  of  his  wines, 
he  begins  to  wonder  what  will  happen  to  him  if,  by 
reason  of  wars,  he  should  be  unable  to  get  his  Bur- 
gundy direct.     Perhaps,  after  all,  it  would  be  wiser 


1523]       Breach  with  the  Reformers        355 

to  go  over  into  France,  where  he  would  at  least  be 
sure  of  his  wine.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  get 
from  the  French  king  through  his  ambassador  at 
Basel  a  safe-conduct  for  the  journey,  and  kept  re- 
minding himself  how  fond  he  had  always  been  of 
France — a  fondness  which,  by  the  way,  he  had 
shown  by  keeping  out  of  France  for  now  about 
fifteen  years.  If  he  had  only  accepted  that  "  mag- 
nificent offer  ' '  of  six  years  before,  he  would  have 
been  spared  all  these  ' '  tragedies  ' '  with  those  stupid 
babblers  at  Louvain.  Perhaps  his  health  and  his 
fortunes  might  have  been  better  too.  It  would  be 
pleasant  to  be  near  the  borders  of  Brabant,  so  that 
he  might  run  over  and  see  his  friends  there.  But 
there  was  just  one  obstacle:  the  war  between  the 
three  kings.  To  Charles  he  was  bound  by  an  oath ; 
to  Henry  and  the  whole  English  people  by  ties  of 
affection ;  to  Francis  also  by  irresistible  attachment 
on  account  of  the  king's  interest  in  him.  Of  course 
it  would  never  do  for  so  important  a  personage  as 
Erasmus  to  offend  two  of  his  royal  friends  by  going 
to  live  with  the  third. 

Why  did  he  not  come  back  to  Brabant  ?  He 
hears  that  there  is  there  just  now  a  great  scarcity  of 
everything,  but  especially  of  French  wines,  and 
besides  "  a  sword  has  been  given  to  certain  violent 
men,  to  whom  one  can  be  neither  a  colleague  nor  an 
opponent."     There  are  enemies  in  every  direction. 

"  Rome  has  her  Stunica  ;  Germany  has  some  who 
can't  say  a  good  word  of  me.  I  hear  that  certain  '  Lu- 
therans,' as  they  call  them,  are  complaining  because  I 
am  too  gentle  with  the  princes  and  too  fond  of  peace. 


35^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

I  confess  I  would  rather  err  on  this  side,  not  only  be- 
cause it  is  safer,  but  because  it  is  a  more  holy  cause. 
Everyone  to  his  taste.  There  are  those  on  the  other 
side  who  try  to  cast  on  me  the  suspicion  of  being  in 
league  with  the  Lutherans." 

Now  each  party  seemed  to  Erasmus  to  be  trying 
to  catch  him  by  stirring  him  up  against  the  other. 
They  told  him  his  books  had  been  burnt  in  Brabant 
by  Hoogstraaten,  hoping  to  make  him  write  some- 
thing against  the  inquisitor  which  would  drive  him 
over  definitely  into  the  Lutheran  camp.  Poor  Botz- 
heim  at  Constance  wrote,  pene  exanimatus  ("  scared 
almost  to  death,"),  that  Erasmus'  books  had  been 
publicly  condemned  at  Rome  by  papal  order.  These 
traps  had  been  sprung  in  vain.  He  had  seen  through 
the  trick  and  kept  his  peace  and  the  truth  had  come 
out.  Far  from  condemning  him,  the  papal  party  at 
Rome  had  done  its  best  to  win  him  to  its  service, 
even  ofifering  him  a  considerable  benefice  if  he  would 
come.  Then  this  again  had  produced  counter- 
charges of  bribery,  which  he  very  properly  dismisses 
by  saying:  "  If  I  could  have  been  drawn  into  this 
fight  by  bribes  I  should  have  been  drawn  in  long 
ago."  Now  he  hears  a  third  rumour,  worse  than 
the  other  two :  the  pope  has  written  some  kind  of 
a  pamphlet  against  him !  but  again  he  sees  the  trick ; 
they  want  to  make  him  say  something  against  the 
pope.  Others  say  that  Lutherans  are  flocking  to 
Basel  to  consult  with  him,  some  even  that  Luther 
is  in  hiding  there. 

"  Would  that  it  were  true  that  all  Lutherans  and  anti- 
Lutherans  too,  would  come  for  my  advice  and  agree  to 


1523  ]  Hutten's  Expostulatio  357 

follow  it  ;  the  world  would  be  far  better  off  in  my  opin- 
ion. Many  persons  have  come  hither  to  see  and  to 
salute  me,  sometimes  in  companies  and  generally  un- 
known to  me  ;  but  never  has  one  called  himself  a  Lu- 
theran in  my  presence  ;  it  is  not  my  business  to  make 
inquiries  and  I  am  no  prophet.  Before  this  trouble 
broke  out  I  was  in  literary  correspondence  with  almost 
all  the  scholars  of  Germany,  to  me  a  most  agreeable  re- 
lation. Of  these  some  have  given  me  the  cold  shoulder, 
some  are  quite  estranged  from  me,  and  some  are  my  open 
enemies  and  seeking  my  ruin.  Some  were  good  friends 
of  mine,  who  are  now  more  severe  towards  Luther  than  I 
could  wish  and  more  than  is  good  for  their  cause.  I  dis- 
miss no  one  from  my  friendship  either  because  he  is  too 
friendly  or  too  hostile  to  Luther  ;  each  acts  in  good  faith. 
"  Men  have  come  to  Basel  who  were  said  to  be  under 
suspicion  of  being  partisans  of  Luther,  and  I  am  ready 
to  have  this  all  charged  upon  me,  if  a  single  one  of  them 
has  ever  come  by  my  invitation  or  if  I  have  not  protested 
to  my  friends  that  it  was  exceedingly  disagreeable  to  me. 
If  persons  of  this  or  that  faction  come  hither,  with  what 
reason  can  this  be  laid  upon  me  ?  I  am  not  the  gate- 
keeper of  Basel  and  hold  no  magistracy  here  !  Hutten 
was  here  as  a  visitor  for  a  few  days  and  neither  came  to 
see  me  nor  did  I  visit  him.  And  yet  if  it  had  depended 
upon  me,  I  would  not  have  denied  him  an  interview,  an 
old  friend  and  a  man  whose  wonderfully  happy  and 
genial  talents  I  cannot  even  now  help  admiring.  .  .  . 
He  could  not  do  without  a  stove,  on  account  of  his 
health,  and  I  cannot  bear  one,  and  so  the  fact  is,  we  did 
not  see  each  other." 

He  would  not  hesitate,  he  says,  to  receive  Luther 
himself,  and  would  give  him  some  wholesome  warn- 


35^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

ings.  There  is  good  on  both  sides.  "  I  am  not 
sure  that  either  side  can  be  put  down  without  grave 
disaster  to  many  good  things."  If  only  it  might 
be  permitted  him  to  be  a  mere  spectator  of  events! 
But  here  he  is,  pulled  hither  and  yon  by  the  parties, 
each  trying  to  make  him  declare  himself  squarely 
against  the  other.  While  one  party  was  accusing 
him  of  being  the  author  of  most  of  the  Lutheran 
writings,  the  other  suspected  him  of  having  written 
King  Henry's  famous  answer  to  Luther.  Upon  this 
welcome  text  Erasmus  builds  up  a  long  story  of  his 
first  acquaintance  with  this  royal  treatise,  a  story  as 
unimportant  as  the  book  itself.  The  outcome  of  it 
all  is  that  he  is  firmly  convinced  that  the  king  wrote 
the  book  with  his  own  wits.  "  Even  if  he  desired 
the  help  of  scholars,  his  court  is  filled  with  learned 
and  eloquent  men."  Again  they  tell  him  that  four 
years  ago  he  ought  to  have  retired  from  the  stage, 
content  with  his  great  services  to  theology,  his  re- 
storation of  the  true  sources  of  Christianity,  etc. 
All  this  is  very  flattering,  but  he  is  held  to  his  work 
by  a  choragos  whose  orders  he  dare  not  disobey. 

Once  more,  he  is  charged  with  speaking  too  highly 
of  the  pope.  What  he  says  of  Leo  is  very  well, 
but,  they  say,  how  can  we  be  sure  of  Leo's  suc- 
cessor. Well,  there  have  been  good  popes  before 
Leo,  and  why  not  after  him  ?  They  say  "  Erasmus 
ought  to  declare :  '  Thou,  pope,  art  Antichrist !  you, 
bishops,  are  false  leaders!  that  Roman  see  of  yours 
is  an  abomination  to  God ! '  and  many  other  such 
things  and  worse."  This  is  the  old  Erasmian 
method,  which  he  had  consistently  followed  from 


1523]  Hutten's  Expostulatio  359 

the  beginning — to  confine  his  criticism  to  evil  men 
and  refrain  from  criticising  institutions.  If  men 
were  good,  institutions  would  be  good. 

Finally  we  come  to  the  charge  that  Erasmus,  in 
his  paraphrase  of  the  ninth  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  had  allowed  "  a  little  something  " 
to  the  freedom  of  the  human  will.  This  is  our  first 
encounter  with  a  strictly  dogmatic  question,  the 
one  by  which  the  whole  Lutheran  position  was  to 
stand  or  fall.  We  have,  however,  prepared  our- 
selves for  Erasmus'  inevitable  attitude  on  this  point 
by  noting  his  insistence,  throughout  all  his  moral 
teaching,  upon  the  individual  will  as  the  dominant 
motive.  For  the  moment  he  defends  himself  only 
by  declaring  that  in  his  Paraphrase  he  is  merely  fol- 
lowing all  the  best  authorities  in  the  Church  from 
Origen  to  Aquinas.  He  wrote  the  passage  in  ques- 
tion in  1 5 17,  before  Luther  had  appeared,  so  that  it 
can  in  no  way  be  thought  of  as  an  attack  upon  him. 
Moreover,  it  is  the  mildest  possible  statement  of  a 
free-will  doctrine. 

"  Some  weight  is  to  be  given  to  our  will  and  our  en- 
deavour, but  so  little  that  in  comparison  with  the  grace 
of  God  it  seems  to  be  as  nothing.  No  man  is  condemned, 
except  by  his  own  fault  ;  but  no  one  is  saved,  except  by 
God's  grace.  ...  I  saw  on  the  one  hand  Scylla  lur- 
ing us  on  to  confidence  in  works,  which  I  believe  to  be 
the  worst  plague  of  religion.  On  the  other  hand  I  saw 
Charybdis,  a  worse  monster  yet,  by  whom  many  are  now 
being  attracted,  who  say  :  Let  us  follow  our  own  lusts  ; 
whether  we  torment  ourselves  or  indulge  our  wills,  what 
God  has  decreed  will  happen  all  the  same." 


360  Desiderius  Erasmus  [i52(^ 

So  his  language  has  been  moderate,  and  he  has 
hoped  simply  to  aid  men  to  virtue.  The  close  of 
this  letter  is  a  really  eloquent  bit  of  self-analysis. 

"  If  any  there  be,  who  cannot  love  Erasmus  because  he 
is  a  feeble  Christian,  let  him  think  of  me  as  he  will.  I 
cannot  be  other  than  I  am.  If  any  man  has  from  Christ 
greater  gifts  of  the  Spirit  and  is  sure  of  himself,  let  him 
use  them  for  the  glory  of  Christ.  Meanwhile  it  is  more 
to  my  mind  to  follow  a  more  humble  and  a  safer  way. 
I  cannot  help  hating  dissension  and  loving  peace  and 
harmony.  I  see  how  obscure  all  human  affairs  are.  I 
see  how  much  easier  it  is  to  stir  up  confusion  than  to 
allay  it.  I  have  learned  how  many  are  the  devices  of 
Satan.  I  should  not  dare  to  trust  my  own  spirit  in  all 
things  and  I  am  far  from  being  able  to  pronounce  with 
certainty  on  the  spirit  of  another.  I  would  that  all 
might  strive  together  for  the  triumph  of  Christ  and  the 
peace  of  the  Gospel,  and  that  without  violence,  but  in 
truth  and  reason,  we  might  take  counsel  both  for  the 
dignity  of  the  priesthood  and  for  the  liberty  of  the 
people,  whom  our  Lord  Jesus  desired  to  be  free.  To 
those  who  go  about  to  this  end  to  the  best  of  their  abil- 
ity Erasmus  shall  not  be  wanting.  But  if  anyone  desires 
to  throw  everything  into  confusion,  he  shall  not  have  me 
either  for  a  leader  or  a  companion.  These  people  claim 
for  themselves  the  working  of  the  Spirit.  Well,  let  peo- 
ple on  whom  the  divine  spirit  has  breathed  jump  with 
good  hopes  into  the  ranks  of  the  prophets.  That  Spirit  has 
not  yet  seized  upon  me  ;  when  it  does,  then  perhaps  I 
too  shall  be  counted  as  Saul  among  the  prophets." 

In  this  long  letter,  written  obviously  with  a  view 
to   publication,    we   have  epitomised,   as   Erasmus 


1523]  Hutten's  Expostulatio  361 

himself  wished  it  to  appear,  the  story  of  his  leaving 
Louvain  and  his  attitude  toward  the  chief  questions 
of  the  great  reform.  Nothing  that  we  can  add 
would  be  more  significant  than  the  concluding  para- 
graph. If  only  all  men  could  see  both  sides  of 
every  question  as  he  did,  and  would  join  with  him 
in  pious  exhortation  to  everyone  else  to  be  good,  he 
would  be  delighted  to  be  their  leader  and  com- 
panion. This  is  only  one  of  those  numerous  "  ifs  " 
— though  an  unusually  large  one — by  which  Eras- 
mus so  often  saved  himself  in  difficult  places.  It 
meant  simply  that  he  did  not  propose  to  commit 
himself  at  all.  The  Laurinus  letter  was  the  reply 
to  numerous  criticisms  against  the  course  of  Eras- 
mus in  the  years  between  1520  and  1523,  years  in 
which  the  various  aspects  of  the  great  reform 
movement  were  becoming  more  and  more  clearly 
defined.  We  discern  in  it  with  great  distinctness 
the  view  of  Erasmus  taken  by  the  leading  spirits  of 
the  Lutheran  party. 

Nowhere  is  this  Lutheran  judgment  of  his  posi- 
tion so  vigorously  demonstrated  as  in  his  famous 
conflict  with  Ulrich  von  Hutten.  Hutten's  per- 
sonality was  totally  antipodal  to  that  of  Erasmus. 
Born  of  a  noble  family  in  Wiirtemberg  in  1488, 
Hutten  received  the  training  of  a  soldier  and  took 
his  part  in  the  violent  feuds  which,  in  the  absence 
of  a  strong  central  government  in  Germany,  were 
continually  wasting  the  energies  and  the  resources 
of  the  great  class  of  the  lower  nobility.  But 
Hutten  was  more  than  a  soldier.  He  had  early 
come  under  the  influence  of  Reuchlin,  his  country- 


362  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

man,  and  had  given  himself  with  great  zeal  to  the 
cause  of  learning.  He  had  mastered  the  technique 
of  the  scholar's  profession,  had  made  himself  an  ac- 
complished Latinist  in  both  prose  and  verse,  and 
had  learned  as  much  Greek  as  was  needed  to  decor- 
ate his  Latin  style.  In  his  way  he  was  as  marked 
an  individual  as  Erasmus.  He,  too,  was  a  homeless 
man,  an  outcast  from  his  family  and  his  narrower 
Swabian  fatherland,  a  wanderer,  seeking  a  living  by 
methods  even  more  precarious  and  more  question- 
able than  Erasmus  had  employed,  everywhere  at 
home  if  only  the  sun  of  princely  or  private  favour 
would  shine  upon  him  for  the  moment.  But  here 
the  resemblance  ends.  Hutten  let  his  individuality 
carry  him  into  wild  and  reckless  living  and  finally  to 
ruin,  but  he  did  not  let  it  alienate  him  from  the 
great  movements  of  humanity  going  on  about  him. 
In  the  Reformation  he  was  quick  to  discern  all  those 
elements  of  social  and  economic  change  which  were 
sure  to  follow  upon  the  religious  appeal.  What 
repelled  and  estranged  Erasmus,  the  man  of  peace, 
attracted  and  held  Hutten,  the  man  of  strife.  In 
Luther's  proclamation  of  a  salvation  by  faith  he  saw 
the  hope  of  a  social  and  religious  reconstruction,  in 
which,  inevitably,  the  religious  system  of  the  Middle 
Ages  must  go  to  the  wall.  He  was  too  little  of 
a  speculative  genius  to  be  drawn  into  the  logical 
extravagances  of  the  radical  party  of  Munzer  and 
his  like,  but  the  prospect  of  a  glorious  fight,  with 
the  weapons  alike  of  the  intellect  and  of  the  flesh, 
filled  him  with  a  holy  joy  as  it  filled  Erasmus  with 
a  holy  horror.     Without  waiting  to  consider  or  to 


» 


ULRICH   VON    HUTTEN. 

FROM    A    CONTEMPORARY    WOOD-CUT. 


1523]  Hutten's   Expostulatio  363 

make  certain  whither  it  would  lead  him,  he  threw 
himself  with  passionate  energy  into  the  Lutheran 
cause.  Already  he  had  made  himself  known,  ad- 
mired, and  feared  by  his  part  in  the  Epistolce  obscur- 
orum  viroriim,  that  merciless  satire  on  the  schoolmen 
which  had  done  more  than  any  other  one  thing  to 
draw  the  forces  of  light  together  into  one  camp  over 
against  the  forces  of  darkness.  This  contribution  to 
what  others  regarded  as  his  own  work  did  not,  how- 
ever, if  we  may  take  his  word  for  it,  please  Erasmus. 
He  wanted  to  keep  all  the  satirising  to  himself,  that 
it  might  be  held  within  prudent  limits.  Thus  his 
earliest  impressions  of  Hutten  were  not  favourable. 
He  seems  to  have  felt  in  him  by  "  a  certain  instinct 
of  nature,"  as  he  might  have  said,  an  "  unsafe  " 
person.  His  early  approach  toward  him  is  cautious. 
Hutten  sends  him  his  works  and  begs  for  his  friend- 
ship. Erasmus  replies  with  reserve,  counsels  him 
to  keep  out  of  fights,  to  devote  himself  to  the 
Muses,  and  to  preserve  his  own  dignity.  Then  we 
have  the  famous  and  charming  letter'  in  which 
Erasmus  describes  to  Hutten  the  work  and  charac- 
ter of  Thomas  More.  But  soon  it  is  evident  that 
Hutten  is  getting  out  of  all  patience  with  Erasmus. 
The  letters  of  15 18  and  15 19,  with  their  anxious 
balancing  of  views,  were  in  circulation,  and  had 
made  upon  this  upright  and  downright  fighting  man 
the  impression  of  a  trimming,  fretful,  petty  spirit. 
In  August,  1520,  he  writes  to  Erasmus  in  a  totally 
altered  style.'     He  has  now  no  time  or  temper  for 

'  iii.',  472. 

^  Hutteni  opera,  ed.  Backing,  1859,  i.,  367. 


364  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

compliments.  In  short,  rapid  sentences  he  puts  the 
case  to  the  great  man  as  one  in  which  all  shilly- 
shallying was  out  of  place, 

"  While  Reuchlin's  affair  was  all  in  a  glow,  you  seemed 
to  be  in  a  more  weakly  terror  of  those  people  [u/t?^']  than 
you  ought  to  have  been.  And  now  in  Luther's  case,  you 
have  been  trying  as  hard  as  you  can  to  persuade  his 
enemies  that  you  were  as  far  as  possible  from  defending 
the  common  good  of  the  Christian  world,  while  they 
knew  you  really  believed  just  the  opposite.  That  does 
not  seem  to  be  an  altogether  becoming  thing  to  do.  .  .  . 
You  know  with  what  glee  they  are  carrying  about  cer- 
tain letters  of  yours  in  which  while  you  are  trying  to 
escape  from  blame,  you  are  putting  blame  on  others  in  a 
hateful  fashion  enough.  In  the  same  way  you  have 
been  abusing  the  Epistolce.  obscurorum,  though  you  ad- 
mired them  powerfully  once  ;  and  you  are  damning 
Luther  because  he  has  set  in  motion  some  things  that 
ought  not  to  have  been  moved,  when  you  yourself  have 
been  handling  the  same  subjects  everywhere  throughout 
your  writings.  And  yet  you  will  never  make  them  be- 
lieve that  you  are  not  desirous  of  the  same  things.  You 
will  just  hurt  us  and  at  the  same  time  will  not  pacify 
them.  You  are  irritating  the  more  and  rousing  hatred 
by  trying  to  hide  a  thing  so  open  as  this." 

We  are  quite  prepared  to  understand  how  unwel- 
come to  Erasmns  such  direct  and  unequivocal  lan- 
guage as  this  must  have  been.  He  had  no  use  for 
any  argument  that  had  not  two  sides  to  it.  Events 
were  moving  rapidly.  While  the  affair  of  Luther 
was  being  tried  at  Worms  in  the  summer  of  1521 
Hutten  was  watching  and  planning  for  the  social 


1523]        Hutten's  **  Expostulatio "         365 

overturn  which  he  confidently  expected,  and  out  of 
which,  he  hoped,  a  new  Germany,  regenerated  in 
body  and  soul,  was  to  arise.  In  the  winter  of  1521- 
22  he  drifted  to  Basel  and  spent  some  time  there. 
As  yet  there  was  no  open  breach  between  him  and 
Erasmus.  He  seems  to  have  wished  to  meet  him 
personally  and  to  have  met  a  flat  refusal.  In  the 
letter  to  Laurinus  Erasmus  declares  that  he  was 
perfectly  willing  to  see  Hutten,  but  as  he  could  not 
endure  a  room  with  a  stove  in  it,  and  Hutten  could 
not  be  in  a  room  without  a  stove,  an  interview  was 
impossible!  This  silly  story  reappears  in  various 
other  connections.  It  is  quite  unworthy  of  serious 
examination,  but  was  undoubtedly  a  mere  cover  for 
some  deeper  cause.  What  this  was  may  readily  be 
supplied.  Writing  to  Melanchthon  after  Hutten  s 
death,^  Erasmus  says: 

"  As  to  my  refusing  Hutten  an  interview,  the  reason 
was  not  so  much  the  fear  of  exciting  hostility  ;  there 
was  another  thing  which,  however,  I  did  not  touch  upon 
in  my  Spongia.  He  was  in  utter  poverty  and  was  seek- 
ing some  nest  to  die  in.  Now  I  was  expected  to  take 
this  ^  miles  gloriosus,'  pox  and  all,  into  my  house  and  with 
him  that  whole  chorus  of  '  evangelicals  '  by  name — and 
nothing  but  the  name." 

We  may  be  quite  sure  that  here  was  Erasmus'  real 
grievance.  He  might  pretend  that  he  had  never 
seen  anyone  at  Basel  who  called  himself  a  Lutheran, 
but  he  knew  that  if  he  took  Hutten  into  his  house 
and  appeared  on  friendly  terms  with  him,  he  could 

'iii.,  817-B. 


366  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

keep  up  this  pretence  no  longer.  He  knew  also  by 
a  former  experience  that  any  expressions  favourable 
to  Luther  would  be  made  the  most  of  by  Hutten. 
He  could  not  afford  such  a  friend  and  he  shut  his 
door  in  his  face. 

Hutten's  patience,  never,  we  may  believe,  over- 
much enduring,  was  at  an  end.  He  made  up  his 
mind  to  make  such  a  public  attack  upon  Erasmus  as 
would  compel  him  to  speak  out  and  thus  commit 
himself  once  for  all  on  one  side  or  the  other.  Eras- 
mus heard  of  this  intention  and  wrote  him  a  short 
letter '  of  expostulation,  warning  and  threatening 
him  at  once.  In  this  letter  he  gives  away  his  case 
as  to  the  Basel  incident  in  the  most  complete  fashion. 
He  says: 

"  I  did  not  refuse  you  an  interview  when  you  were 
here,  but  begged  you  through  Eppendorf,  in  the  gentlest 
manner,  that,  if  it  was  only  a  complimentary  visit,  you 
would  stay  away,  on  account  of  the  enmity  with  which  I 
have  long  been  burdened  even  to  the  risk  of  my  life. 
What  use  is  there  in  gaining  enmity  when  one  cannot 
thereby  be  any  help  to  one's  friend  ?  " 

Then  comes  in  the  stove  again. 

Hutten  was,  as  well  he  might  be,  rather  more 
angered  than  appeased  by  this  missive,  and  soon 
printed  his  Expostulatio  cum  Erasmo.^ 

Erasmus  had  had  to  hear  a  good  many  bitter 
words  in  the  years  just  past,  but  never  such  stinging 
reproaches  as  these.    Doubtless  the  personal  element 

■  iii.\  790.     Also  in  Hutteni  opera,  ed.  Bocking,  ii.,  178. 
^  Hutteni  opera,  ii.,  180. 


1523]  Hutten's  Expostulatio  367 

played  its  part  in  adding  a  final  goad  to  Hutten's 
indignation ;  but  the  Expostulatio  is  far  from  being 
a  mere  personal  reply  to  real  or  fancied  wrongs.  It 
is  a  scathing  review  of  the  whole  attitude  of  Eras- 
mus towards  the  reform.  The  chief  note  of  the 
charge  is  cowardice,  deceit,  and  time-serving.  The 
underlying  assumption  throughout  is  that  Erasmus 
was  really  in  sympathy  with  the  whole  attack  upon 
the  church  order  from  Reuchlin  onwards.  This 
assumption  is  proved  out  of  his  own  mouth.  At 
every  new  stage  of  the  reform  he  was  shown  to 
have  expressed  approval,  only  to  change  approval 
into  condemnation  as  soon  as  there  was  a  prospect 
that  anything  would  be  done.  So,  on  the  other 
hand,  Hutten  shows  Erasmus  attacking  all  the 
enemies  of  reform,  the  pope,  Aleander,  Hoogstraa- 
ten,  and  the  rest,  and  then  changing  his  tone  to  a 
weak,  snivelling  flattery  as  soon  as  he  saw  any  dan- 
ger in  prospect.  A  few  specimens  will  illustrate  the 
vigour  and  openness  of  Hutten's  method.  After 
the  twistings  and  turnings  of  Erasmus'  style,  his 
reads  like  a  model  of  strength  and  directness. 

"  Because  of  my  health,  or  for  some  other  reason,  I 
could  not  be  away  from  my  stove  long  enough  to  speak 
with  you  once  or  twice  in  the  whole  fifty  days  I  spent  at 
Basel,  though  I  would  often  stand  talking  with  friends 
in  the  midst  of  the  market-place  for  three  hours  at  a 
time  !  Well,  that  is  quite  like  your  sincerity,  to  take  a 
perfectly  simple  thing  and  give  it  a  false  colouring  and 
to  cover  up  the  truth  with  an  empty  show. 

"  As  I  thought  the  matter  over  attentively  several  rea- 
sons occurred  to  me  why,  perhaps,  you  might  thus  have 


3^8  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

fallen  away  from  yourself.  First,  your  insatiable  ambi- 
tion for  fame,  your  greed  for  glory,  which  makes  it  im- 
possible for  you  to  bear  the  growing  powers  of  anyone 
else  ;  and  then  the  lack  of  steadiness  in  your  mind,  which 
has  always  displeased  me  in  you  as  unworthy  of  your 
greatness  and  led  me  to  believe  that  you  were  terror- 
stricken  by  the  threats  of  these  men,  ,  .  .  Finally  I 
explain  it  to  myself  by  the  pettiness  of  your  mind,  which 
makes  you  afraid  of  everything  and  easily  thrown  into 
despair  ;  for  you  had  so  little  faith  in  the  progress  of 
our  cause,  especially  when  you  saw  that  some  of  the 
chief  princes  of  Germany  were  conspiring  against  us, 
that  straightway  you  thought  you  must  not  only  desert 
us,  but  must  also  seek  their  good-will  by  every  possible 
means." 

Referring  to  Erasmus*  charge  that  the  Lutherans 
had  set  on  foot  a  rumour  that  Hoogstraaten  had 
burned  his  books,  in  order  to  make  him  write 
against  the  Church,  Hutten  says: 

"  Now,  supposing  it  was  our  purpose  to  draw  you  into 
our  party,  how  could  we  hope  to  do  it  easily  in  this  way, 
since  it  was  perfectly  certain  that  you  would  never  dare 
to  do  anything  against  him  or  anybody  else  until  you 
saw  exactly  how  the  land  lay — unless,  indeed,  Switzer- 
land be  so  far  from  Brabant  that  we  could  hope  you 
would  hear  nothing  from  there  for  a  whole  year  !  Away 
with  this  simple-heartedness  of  yours  to  some  other 
world  !     Our  Germany  knows  no  such  morals  as  these. 

"  When  iheEpistolcB  obscurorum  came  out,  you  approved 
and  applauded  more  than  anyone  else  ;  you  gave  the 
author  a  regular  triumph  ;  you  said  there  had  never 
been  discovered  a  more  complete  way  of  attacking  those 


1523]  Hutten's  Expostulatio  369 

people  ;  that  barbarians  ought  to  be  ridiculed  in  barbar- 
ous language  ;  and  you  congratulated  us  on  our  clever- 
ness. Before  our  fooleries  were  printed,  you  copied 
some  of  them  with  your  own  hand,  saying  :  *  I  must 
send  these  to  my  friends  in  England  and  France.'  But 
soon  after,  when  you  saw  that  the  whole  muck  of  the 
theologers  were  much  disturbed  and  that  the  hornets 
were  stirred  up  in  all  directions  and  were  threatening 
ruin,  you  began  to  tremble,  and  lest  suspicion  might  fall 
upon  you  that  you  were  the  author  or  that  you  approved 
the  plan,  you  wrote  a  letter  with  that  same  candour  of 
yours  to  Cologne,  trying  to  get  ahead  of  the  rumours 
and  making  a  great  pretence  of  sympathy  with  them 
and  regret  at  the  affair  and  saying  many  things  against 
the  whole  business  and  abusing  the  authors." 

If  Erasmus  is  such  a  man  of  peace,  why,  asks 
Hutten,  does  he  now  so  bitterly  attack  the  reform- 
ers ?  Some  people  had  long  since  accused  him  of 
treachery,  but  at  that  time  no  one  would  believe 
them  and  Erasmus  was  satisfied  to  put  it  all  upon 
the  Fates: 

"  a  fine  notion  and,  as  we  now  see,  truly  Erasmian  ! 
You  say  that,  being  the  man  you  are,  you  must  deal 
with  Germans  after  their  own  fashion.  Well,  this  is  not 
the  way  of  Germans,  but  of  men  whose  fickleness  and 
inconstancy  are  altogether  foreign  to  Germans,  men  who 
can  be  tossed  about  hither  and  thither  by  every  change 
of  wind,  with  whom  nothing  is  fixed,  but  everything  slip- 
pery and  shifting  with  the  changes  of  fortune.  Get  you 
to  Italy  with  such  doings,  to  those  cardinals  whom  you 
are  now  taking  under  your  wing,  where  everyone  may 
live  according  to  his  own  morals  and  his  own  character  ! 


370  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

Or  else  get  back  to  your  own  French-Dutchmen,  if,  per- 
haps, this  is  a  national  vice  and  one  common  to  you  and 
them  !  " 

Referring  to  the  use  of  the  term  "  Lutherans," 
about  which  Erasmus  was  so  much  distressed,  Hut- 
ten  says : 

"  Therefore,  although  I  have  never  had  Luther  for 
my  master  or  my  companion  and  am  carrying  on  this 
business  on  my  own  account,  and  although  I  am  most 
terribly  opposed  to  being  counted  in  any  party  what- 
ever, nevertheless,  since  it  is  a  fact  that  those  who  are 
opposed  to  the  Roman  tyranny — among  whom  I  desire 
above  all  things  to  be  reckoned — and  those  who  dare  to 
speak  the  truth  and  who  are  turning  back  from  human 
ordinances  to  the  teaching  of  the  Gospel,  are  commonly 
called  Lutherans,  therefore  I  am  ready  to  bear  the  bur- 
den of  this  nickname,  lest  I  seem  to  deny  my  faith  in 
the  cause,  .  .  .  Now  you  know  why  I  accept  the 
name  of  Lutheran,  and  anyone  can  see  that  for  the  same 
reasons  you  too  are  a  Lutheran,  and  that  so  much  the 
more  than  I  or  anyone  else  as  you  are  a  better  writer 
and  a  more  accomplished  orator." 

One  may  search  the  writings  of  Erasmus  from 
beginning  to  end  without  finding  an  utterance  to 
compare  with  this  in  decision  and  clear-cut  dis- 
crimination of  the  truth.  At  great  length  and  with 
the  appearance  of  entire  sincerity  Hutten  warns 
Erasmus  of  the  danger  he  is  now  in  of  appearing  to 
be  only  the  hired  man  of  the  papacy.  He  may  still, 
in  his  heart,  be  true  to  his  former  convictions;  but 
who  will  believe  it  ?    All  this  bragging  about  his 


1523]  Hutten's  Expostulatio-  371 

great  friends  at  Rome  with  their  flattering  offers 
can  only  confirm  the  Lutherans  in  their  distrust  of 
him.  If  he  will  not  be  warned  now,  then  let  him 
go  on 

"  to  fulfil  the  hopes  of  those  who  have  long  been  looking 
about  for  a  leader  for  the  enemies  of  the  truth.  Gird 
yourself ;  the  thing  is  ripe  for  action  ;  it  is  a  task  worthy 
of  your  old  age  ;  put  forth  your  strength  ;  bend  to  the 
work  !  You  shall  find  your  enemies  ready !  the  party 
of  the  Lutherans,  which  you  would  like  to  crush  to 
earth,  is  waiting  for  the  battle  and  cannot  refuse  it.  Our 
hearts  are  full  of  courage  ;  we  are  sustained  by  a  certain 
hope  and,  relying  upon  our  conscious  rectitude  and  hon- 
our, we  will  decline  no  challenge,  no  matter  whither  you 
may  call  us.  Nay,  that  you  may  see  how  great  is  the 
faith  that  is  in  us,  the  more  furiously  you  assault  us,  the 
keener  you  shall  find  us  in  defending  the  cause  of  truth. 
.  .  .  One  half  of  you  will  stand  with  us  and  be  in  our 
camp  ;  your  fight  will  be,  not  so  much  with  us  as  with 
your  own  genius  and  your  own  writings.  You  will  turn 
your  learning  against  yourself  and  will  be  eloquent 
against  your  own  eloquence.  Your  writings  will  be 
fighting  back  and  forth  with  each  other." 

The  Lutherans  will  trust  in  God  and  joyfully  take 
up  the  encounter. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Hutten  was  uttering 
the  voice  of  the  great  Lutheran  party,  as  it  must 
now  be  called.  Although  called  out  by  a  personal 
attack,  the  Expostulatio  keeps  itself  throughout  on 
higher  than  personal  grounds.  It  is  not  an  apology 
for  Hutten ;  it  is  a  fierce  outburst  of  honest  indigna- 
tion against  a  man  who  seemed  to  be  throwing  away 


37.2  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

a  noble  mind  and  conspicuous  gifts  through  lack  of 
courage  and  simple  honesty.  Hutten's  expressions 
of  admiration  for  bis  opponent  have  the  ring  of 
absolute  sincerity.  He  had  admired  him  above  all 
other  men,  and  his  wrath  is  tempered  by  pain  and 
honest  sorrow  at  his  failure  to  lead  where  none  could 
lead  so  well.  If  Hutten  made  the  mistake  which  so 
many  have  made  since  his  time,  of  asking  from  Eras- 
mus a  kind  of  service  for  which  he  was  by  nature 
unfitted,  it  was  a  mistake  which  honours  him  who 
made  it.  The  time  for  balancing  good  and  evil  had 
gone.  If  anything  was  to  be  done,  it  must  be  by 
the  united  action  of  all  who  were  in  substantial 
agreement  upon  the  great  essential  questions  of  the 
hour.  There  had  been  enough  of  apologising  and 
trimming,  and  this  great  word  of  Hutten  was  the 
proclamation  of  what  was  inevitably  to  come. 

When  it  came  into  Erasmus'  hands  he  determined 
at  once  to  reply,  and  the  result  was  the  famous 
pamphlet  which  he  called  Spongia  adversus  asperghies 
Hutteni,  "a  sponge  to  wipe  out  the  bespatterings  of 
Hutten. "  It  is  a  work  twice  as  long  as  the  Expostu- 
lation written,  so  its  author  says,  in  six  days  during 
the  month  of  July,  1523,  but  not  published  until  the 
autumn  and  after  the  death  of  Hutten,  which  oc- 
curred August  29th.  The  Spongia  is  as  distinctly  a 
work  of  personal  apology  as  the  Expostulatio  was 
the  opposite.  It  takes  up,  one  by  one,  the  points 
made  by  Hutten  and  deals  with  them  after  the 
fashion  with  which  we  are  now  so  familiar  that  any 
extended  examination  would  in  no  way  enlarge  our 
understanding    of    Erasmus'    true    position.      The 


1523]  The  Spongia  373 

greater  part  of  Hutten's  charges  he  accepts  in  one 
or  another  sense  and  then  tries  to  take  away  their 
force.  The  most  common  way  of  doing  this  is  by 
showing  that  he  has  never  really  been  inconsistent 
with  himself,  but  has  only  adapted  himself  for  the 
moment  to  given  conditions  lest  the  one  great  cause 
of  pure  learning  should  suffer  by  too  great  zeal. 
Nowhere  does  Erasmus  show  himself  a  more  com- 
plete master  of  the  word  "  if."  He  will  admit 
everything  with  an  "  if,"  Hutten  has  accused  him 
of  keeping  on  too  good  terms  with  the  pope  after 
all  the  abuse  which  he  has  heaped  upon  things 
papistical — very  well,  he  has  praised  popes,  but  he 
has  done  this  because  he  believed  them  to  be  men 
who  meant  well  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  If  otherwise 
he  would  be  the  last  to  praise  them. 

Erasmus'  analysis  of  the  papal  power  here  is  a 
monument  of  his  skill  in  turning  about  words  to  suit 
his  purpose. 

"  I  have  never,"  he  says,  "  spoken  inconsistently  of  the 
Roman  See.  Tyranny,  greed,  and  other  vices,  ancient 
grounds  of  complaint  common  to  all  good  men,  I  have 
never  approved.  Nor  have  I  ever  totally  condemned  in- 
dulgences, though  I  have  always  hated  this  shameless 
trade  in  them.  What  I  think  about  ceremonies,  my 
books  declare  in  many  places.  But  when  have  I  abused 
the  Canon  Law  or  the  papal  decretals  ?  Whatever  he 
means  by  *  calling  the  pope  to  order '  I  am  not  quite 
clear.  I  suppose  he  will  admit  that  there  is  a  church  at 
Rome  ;  for  the  multitude  of  its  sins  cannot  cause  it  to  be 
any  the  less  a  church — if  this  is  not  so  then  we  have  no 
churches  at  all.     And  I  assume  that  it  is  an  orthodox 


374  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

church  ;  for  if  certain  bad  men  are  mingled  with  the 
rest,  yet  the  church  abides  in  the  good  ones.  And  I 
suppose  he  will  allow  that  this  church  has  a  bishop,  and 
that  this  bishop  is  a  metropolitan  ,  .  .  now  then 
among  metropolitans  what  is  there  absurd  in  giving  the 
first  place  to  the  Roman  pontiff  ?  for  this  great  power 
which  they  have  been  usurping  to  themselves  during 
several  centuries,  no  one  has  ever  heard  me  defend. 

"  But  Hutten  will  not  endure  a  wicked  pope  ; — why, 
that  is  what  we  are  all  praying  for,  that  the  pope  may  be 
a  man  worthy  of  his  apostolic  office.  But,  if  he  be  not 
that,  let  him  be  deposed  ;  and  by  the  same  token,  let  all 
bishops  be  deposed  who  do  not  duly  perform  their  func- 
tions. But  an  especial  plague  of  the  world  has  been 
flowing  now  for  many  years  from  Rome.  Would  that  it 
could  be  denied  !  Now,  however,  has  come  a  pope  who 
is  striving,  as  I  believe,  with  all  his  might,  to  give  back 
to  us  that  See  and  that  Curia  purified." 

Yet  Erasmus  had  been  overwhelming  the  dead 
Leo,  the  source  of  this  pestilent  flood,  with  every 
conceivable  kind  of  flattery.  Now  he  abuses  him, 
in  order  to  make  his  point  that  things  are  all  going 
to  be  set  right  by  the  excellent  Adrian.  But  this 
way  of  setting  things  right  is  just  what  Hutten  does 
not  hope  for,  he  says. 

"Yet  there  are  many  reasons  for  this  hope,  and  char- 
ity, according  to  Paul,  *  hopeth  all  things,'  If  Hutten 
were  declaring  war  upon  evils,  not  upon  men,  he  would 
hasten  to  Rome  and  help  this  pope  who  is  now  trying  to 
do  the  very  same  things  he  is  himself  striving  for.  But 
Hutten  has  declared  war  upon  the  Roman  pontiff  and 


1523]  The  Spongia  375 

all  his  followers.  ,  .  .  The  Romanists  would  like 
always  to  have  such  enemies  as  Hutten." 

If  there  was  an  honest  Erasmus  anywhere  under 
this  mass  of  words,  it  ^seems  pretty  clear  that  he 
was  for  Hutten  rather  than  against  him.  That 
Erasmus  had  any  such  honest  side  one  is  tempted 
to  doubt  when  one  reads  his  defence  against  the 
charge  of  trifling  with  the  truth.  Hutten  had  ac- 
cused him  *  of  saying  that  the  truth  ought  not  always 
to  be  spoken,  and  that  a  great  deal  depended  upon 
how  it  was  put  forth. 

"  That  blasphemous  speech  of  yours,"  he  had  said, 
"  ought  to  have  been  thrust  down  your  throat  (my  cause 
compels  me  to  speak  more  angrily  than  I  would)  if  those 
had  done  their  duty  who  are  now  compelling  heretics  to 
recant  or  throwing  them  to  the  flames." 

Erasmus  could  not  deny  the  words,  but  replies  * : 

**  When  Christ  first  sent  out  the  Apostles  to  preach  the 
Gospel  he  forbade  them  to  declare  that  he  was  the  Christ. 
If,  then,  the  Truth  himself  ordered  that  truth  to  be  kept 
in  silence,  without  the  knowledge  of  which  there  is  no 
salvation  to  any  man,  what  is  there  strange  in  my  saying 
that  the  truth  ought  sometimes  to  be  suppressed  ?  " 

Then  he  gives  several  similar  illustrations  of  repres- 
sion of  truth  by  silence  on  the  part  of  Jesus,  and 
goes  on : 


^Expostulation  §  i8o. 

*  Spongia,  §  274,  x.,  1660-E,  and  Hutteni  opera,  ii.,  306. 


37^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

"  If  I  had  to  defend  the  cause  of  an  innocent  man  before 
a  powerful  tyrant  should  I  blurt  out  the  whole  truth  and 
ruin  the  case  of  the  innocent  man,  or  should  I  keep  many 
things  silent  ?  Hutten,  a  brave  man  and  most  zealous 
for  the  truth,  would,  no  doubt,  speak  thus  :  '  O  most 
accursed  tyrant,  you  who  have  murdered  so  many  of 
your  fellow-citizens,  is  your  cruelty  not  yet  sated,  that 
you  must  tear  this  innocent  man  from  their  midst  ? ' 
Well,  that  is  about  as  clever  as  the  way  in  which  some 
are  defending  the  cause  of  Luther,  by  raging  against  the 
pope  with  seditious  writings.  Or  if  he  [Hutten]  were 
asking  from  a  wicked  pope  a  benefice  for  some  good 
man,  he  would  write  to  him  after  this  style  :  *  O  impious 
Antichrist,  destroyer  of  the  Gospel,  oppressor  of  civil 
liberty,  flatterer  of  princes,  thou  givest  basely  so  many  a 
benefice  to  wicked  men  and  still  more  basely  sellest 
them,  grant  this  one  to  this  good  man  that  all  may  not 
fall  into  evil  hands.'  You  smile,  reader  ;  but  these  peo- 
ple are  pleading  the  cause  of  the  Gospel  with  no  more 
caution  than  that.  .  .  .  But  what  is  more  foolish 
than  to  call  me  back  from  a  place  where  I  never  was 
and  to  summon  me  to  the  very  place  I  am  now  in  ?  He 
calls  me  back  from  the  party  of  the  wicked  who  support 
the  tyranny  of  the  Romanists,  who  overturn  the  truth  of 
the  Gospel,  who  darken  the  glory  of  Christ  ;  but  I  have 
always  been  fighting  those  very  men.  He  summons  me 
to  his  own  side  ;  but  as  yet  I  am  not  clear  where  Hutten 
himself  stands." 

The  whole  aim  of  the  Spongia  and  its  effect  upon 
the  world  were  simply  to  make  it  perfectly  plain 
that  Erasmus  would  not  take  sides.  If  the  purpose 
of  the  Expostulatio  was  to  force  him  to  do  so,  it  was 


1523]  The  Spongia  377 

a  conspicuous  failure.  Nothing  could  be  plainer 
than  Erasmus'  own  declaration  ' : 

"  in  so  many  letters,  so  many  books,  and  by  so  many 
proofs,  I  am  continually  declaring  that  I  am  unwilling  to 
be  involved  with  either  party.  I  give  many  reasons  for  this 
determination,  but  have  not  put  forth  all  of  them.  And 
in  this  matter  my  conscience  makes  no  charge  against 
me  before  Christ  my  judge.  In  the  midst  of  such  con- 
fusion and  danger  to  my  reputation  and  my  life  I  have 
so  moderated  my  judgments  as  neither  to  be  the  author 
of  any  disturbance  nor  to  help  any  cause  which  I  do  not 
approve.  If  Hutten  is  enraged  because  I  do  not  support 
Luther  as  he  does,  I  protested  three  years  ago  in  an  ap- 
pendix added  to  my  Familiar  Colloquies  at  Louvain,  that 
I  was  totally  a  stranger  to  that  faction  and  always  would 
be.  I  am  not  only  keeping  outside  of  it  myself,  but  I 
am  urging  as  many  friends  as  I  can  to  do  the  same,  and 
I  will  never  cease  to  do  so.  I  mean  by  *  faction  '  the 
zeal  of  a  mind  sworn  as  it  were  to  everything  that  Lu- 
ther has  written  or  is  writing  or  ever  will  write.  This 
kind  of  a  sentiment  often  imposes  upon  good  men  ;  but 
I  have  openly  announced  to  all  my  friends  that  if  they 
cannot  love  me  except  as  a  Lutheran  they  may  have 
whatever  feeling  they  like  about  me.  I  am  a  lover  of 
liberty.     I  will  not  and  I  cannot  serve  a  party." 

Here  once  more  Erasmus  saves  himself  by  a  defin- 
ition. If  to  be  a  Lutheran  were  to  su^ear  to  every 
word  of  Luther's,  then,  of  course,  no  man  in  his 
senses  would  confess  to  the  party  name.  Erasmus 
knew  as  well  as  anyone  that  parties  for  action  were 

'  spongia,  §  176,  x.,  1650-B,  and  Huiteni  opera,  ii.,  291. 


378  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1520- 

never  formed  by  any  such  test.  Men  joined  a  party 
because  they  were  in  general  sympathy  with  others 
and  believed  that  the  time  for  common  action  had 
come.  This  common  action  was  the  thing  he  could 
not  bear  to  think  of.  To  him  it  meant  confusiones, 
tumultus,  tragcedias,  and  all  the  other  horrors  of 
open  conflict.  We  leave  the  Hutten  episode,  closed 
as  it  was  by  the  untimely  death  of  the  brilliant, 
reckless  genius  who  had  brought  it  on,  with  the 
feeling  that  Hutten's  charge  was  substantially  true. 
Erasmus,  with  all  the  best  part  of  him,  was  fighting 
the  Lutheran  battle  and  knew  he  was  doing  it.  He 
recoiled  before  the  fear  of  violence  and  then  had  to 
justify  himself. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  far  the  defini- 
tion of  the  papacy  as  a  metropolitan  see  among  others 
represented  a  real  opinion  of  Erasmus.  Probably  it 
was  a  rhetorical  conclusion;  but  it  can  hardly  have 
made  the  Spongia  a  welcome  visitor  at  Rome,  and 
it  is  not  surprising  that  this  passage  was  expurgated 
by  the  Roman  censorship. 

An  incident  of  the  year  1524  well  illustrates  the 
temper  of  Erasmus  at  the  time  and  also  the  decline 
in  regard  for  him  on  the  Lutheran  side.  A  certain 
Scotch  printer  at  Strassburg  had  published  some 
writing  of  Hutten  against  Erasmus,  probably  the 
Expostulatio,  with  offensive  illustrations,  and  in  a 
second  edition  had  added  an  invective  by  another 
author,  in  which  "  whatever  one  blackguard  could 
say  of  another  "  was  said  of  Erasmus.  What  touched 
him  especially  was  that  he  was  called  a  traitor  to  the 
Gospel,  and   charged    with  having  been   hired  for 


1523]  The  Spongia  379 

money  to  fight  against  it,  and  moreover  was  accused 
of  being  ready  to  be  pulled  in  any  direction  by  the 
chance  of  a  crumb  of  bread.  Erasmus  wrote  two 
very  angry  letters  '  to  the  magistrates  of  Strassburg 
asking  them  to  punish  the  printer,  and  defending 
himself  in  his  usual  fashion  from  these  charges. 

Evidently  nothing  was  done  about  it,  for  some 
time  later  Erasmus  wrote  to  Caspar  Hedio,  one  of 
the  Lutheran  preachers  at  Strassburg,'  complaining 
of  this  neglect.  His  suggestions  about  the  way  to 
treat  an  offending  printer  are  amusing. 

**  You  say  this  Scotchman  has  a  wife  and  little  child- 
ren. Would  that  be  thought  an  excuse  if  he  should 
break  open  my  money-chest  and  steal  my  gold?  I 
should  say  not  ;  and  yet  he  has  done  a  thing  far  worse 
than  that.  Or  perhaps  you  think  I  care  less  for  my 
reputation  than  for  my  money.  If  he  can't  feed  his 
children,  let  him  go  a-begging.  '  That  would  be  a 
shame,'  you  say.  Well,  are  n't  such  actions  as  this  a 
shame  ?  Let  him  prostitute  his  wife  and  snore  away 
with  watchful  nose  over  his  cups.  *  Horrible,'  you  say. 
And  yet  what  he  has  done  is  more  horrible  still.  There 
is  no  law  to  punish  with  death  a  man  who  prostitutes 
his  wife  ;  but  everyone  approves  capital  punishment 
for  those  who  publish  slanderous  writings." 

'  Hi.',  793,  804.  *iii.',844. 


CHAPTER   X 

DOCTRINAL  OPPOSITION  TO  THE  REFORMATION — 
FREEDOM  OF  THE  WILL — THE  EUCHARIST — 
THE    "  SPIRIT  " 

I523-1527 

THERE  can  be  no  doubt  that  Erasmus  was  urged 
from  many  sides  to  write  something  decisive 
against  the  Lutheran  party.  He  held  back  as  long 
as  he  could,  partly,  we  may  be  sure,  from  real  sym- 
pathy with  the  chief  purpose  of  the  reform  and 
partly  from  a  dread  of  committing  himself  to,  he 
knew  not  precisely  what.  To  estimate  his  position 
aright  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  real  meaning 
of  the  reform  party  was  developing  year  by  year, 
taking  on  ever  new  aspects  as  one  interest  after 
another  came  to  be  connected  with  the  original  ker- 
nel of  opposition.  So  far  as  outward  things  were 
concerned  Erasmus  was  barred  from  many  lines  of 
attack  by  his  own  damning  record.  In  these  mat- 
ters he  could  only  indulge  in  vague  exhortations  to 
moderation  and  in  voluminous,  but  jnot  very  con- 
vincing, apologies. 

He   was   therefore   compelled,   if   he   wished   to 
meet  the  pressure  of  the  Roman  party  by  some  open 

380 


1527]  Doctrinal  Opposition  381 

service,  to  turn  to  the  more  speculative  side  of  the 
reform.  He  there  found  a  topic  naturally  adapted 
to  draw  out  his  hostility,  the  topic  of  the  freedom 
of  the  human  will.  It  was  a  subject  especially  suited 
to  the  Erasmian  method.  Its  problem  involved  the 
riddle  of  the  ages :  To  what  degree  is  the  action  of 
man  determined  by  his  own  will  and  to  what  degree 
by  some  power — Fate,  God,  Devil,  call  it  what  we 
may — outside  himself  ?  That  man  had  a  will  of  his 
very  own  had  never  been  totally  denied.  The 
question  was,  how  far  was  this  will  free  to  act  ? 

Within  the  history  of  Christianity  this  problem 
had  early  found  its  expression  in  the  great  Augus- 
tinian-Pelagian  controversy  of  the  fifth  century. 
Both  of  these  parties  had  admitted  that  man's  will 
was  somehow  affected  by  the  divine  will.  The  dif- 
ference, the  hopeless  and  perpetual  difference,  had 
been  on  the  question  of  the  possibility  oi  good  action 
through  the  human  impulse  alone.  This  possibility 
the  Pelagian  party  had  maintained,  adding,  however, 
that  such  original  good  impulse  of  the  human  will 
was  immediately  aided  by  the  divine  grace.  The 
party  of  Augustine  had  denied  the  possibility  of  any 
good  diCtion  without  a /r(?z//^«j  impulse  of  the  divine 
grace.  The  Church,  sane  and  clever  always  in  the 
long  run,  had  steered  its  course  carefully  between 
the  two  extremes.  It  had  condemned  Pelagius  as 
a  heretic  and  reverenced  Augustine  as  a  saint ;  but 
it  had  never  gone  to  those  lengths  of  opinion  which 
might  be  discovered  in  Augustine's  writings  by  one 
who  wished  to  find  them  there. 

In   other    words,    the   Church   had    instinctively 


3&2  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

recognised  that  the  problem  is  insoluble.  As  the 
practical  administrator  of  a  system  of  morals,  it  had 
concerned  itself  only  with  providing  a  machinery 
whereby  the  consequences  of  evil  action  could  be 
averted  from  its  faithful  members.  It  had  never 
said  to  them,  "  You  are  compelled  to  these  sins  by 
a  power  you  cannot  resist,"  but  it  had  said,  "  You 
will  infallibly  sin  and  you  will  suffer  for  your  sins, 
unless  you  remove  them  by  the  means  we  offer." 
So  far  that  had  worked.  The  world  had  accepted 
the  situation  and  gone  merrily  on,  knowing  when  it 
sinned,  but  knowing  also  that  a  kind  and  indulgent 
Church  would  see  to  it  that  its  sins  were  taken  care 
of  at  a  very  reasonable  charge.  Only  from  time  to 
time  men  like  Savonarola  and  groups  of  men  like 
the  Waldensians  had  raised  their  cry  of  protest  and 
called  men  back  again  to  the  sense  of  direct  respon- 
sibility to,  and  direct  dependence  on,  God  alone. 

That  was  the  essence  also  of  Luther's  protest. 
Every  individual  Christian  was  once  again  called 
upon  to  deal  directly  with  his  God.  So  far  the 
Lutheran  teaching  was  in  complete  harmony  with 
the  whole  drift  of  Erasmus'  thought.  But  here 
we  find  another  illustration  of  similar  conclusions 
reached  by  different  ways.  Erasmus  was  quite 
satisfied  to  let  the  whole  speculative  side  of  the 
question  take  care  of  itself.  Luther  could  not  rest 
until  he  had  harmonised  his  practical  aims  with  some 
theological  principle,  which  should  give  them  con- 
sistency and  support.  That  principle  he  found  in 
the  Augustinian  doctrine  of  predestination  and  the 
unfree  will.     Erasmus  was  content,  as  the  Church 


1527]  Freedom  of  the  Will  383 

was,  to  accept  both  sides  of  the  controversy  at  once, 
and  trim  them  to  suit  each  other.  Luther  cared 
little  for  nice  distinctions,  but  convinced  himself 
that  the  salvation  of  his  cause  lay  in  emphasising,  so 
far  as  a  mind  so  eminently  sound  and  human  as  his 
could  do,  the  idea  of  a  divine  fate,  responsible — 
yes,  he  would  even  say  this  if  he  must — responsible 
even  for  the  seeming  evil  of  this  world. 

Now  it  is  obvious  that,  viewed  abstractly,  the 
whole  group  of  ideas  we  call  "  Augustinian  "  are 
open  to  the  gravest  question.  They  seem  to  sap 
the  foundations  of  Christian  morality  and  to  throw 
men  back  upon  the  dreary  fatalisms  from  which  it 
was  the  mission  of  Christianity  to  release  them.  In 
fact,  however,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  from  time 
to  time  they  have  worked,  where  other  means  have 
failed,  to  recall  men  sharply  and  uncompromisingly 
to  the  sense  of  sin  and  thereby  to  a  more  vivid  and 
convincing  moral  purpose.  Such  a  time  was  come 
once  more  in  the  day  of  Luther  and  Erasmus  and 
Calvin.  This  theology  may  have  been  illogical,  but 
it  worked.  It  ought,  perhaps,  in  all  reason,  to  have 
sent  men  flying  off  into  a  mad  indifference  to  moral- 
ity, since  nothing  they  could  do  would  influence 
their  ultimate  fate ;  but  for  every  weak  and  shuffling 
conscience  which  broke  under  this  burden  there 
were  a  hundred  others  that  were  steeled  and  nerved 
by  it  to  a  complete  moral  regeneration.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  impotent  will  has  produced  some  of  the 
most  masterful  wills  before  which  the  world  has 
ever  had  to  bend. 

Here,    then,   was  a  point  upon  which   Erasmus 


3^4  Desiderius  Erasmus  L1523- 

might  safely  attack  Luther  without  compromising 
himself.  His  essay  on  the  Freedom  of  the  Will ' 
was  announced  some  time  before  its  appearance.  In 
the  course  of  the  year  1523  he  sent  a  rough  draft  to 
King  Henry  VHI.,  promising,  if  this  seemed  worth 
while  to  the  king  "  and  other  learned  men,"  to 
finish  it  as  soon  as  his  health  and  certain  engage- 
ments would  permit.  A  letter  of  Luther  to  Eras- 
mus in  1524  suggests  that  he  had  heard  of  his 
intention  to  attack  in  some  way  the  doctrines  of  the 
Reformation,  though  he  nowhere  alludes  to  the  sub- 
ject of  free  will.  This  letter  is  interesting  as  show- 
ing the  lofty  tone  of  a  man  who  believes  himself  to 
be  the  spokesman  of  a  cause  higher  than  any  human 
considerations.  He,  like  Hutten,  sees  in  Erasmus 
an  ally  who,  after  the  measure  of  the  gift  of  God,  is 
fighting  the  same  battle.  Only  he  feels  the  limita- 
tions of  that  gift. 

"  I  see  that  God  has  not  yet  granted  you  the  courage 
and  the  insight  to  join  freely  and  confidently  with  me  in 
fighting  those  monsters.  Nor  am  I  the  man  to  demand 
of  you  what  goes  beyond  my  own  strength  and  my  own 
limitations.  But  weakness  like  my  own  and  a  measure 
of  the  gift  of  God  I  have  borne  with  in  you  and  have 
respected  it.  For  this  plainly  the  whole  world  cannot 
deny :  that  learning  flourishes  and  prevails,  whereby 
men  have  come  to  the  true  understanding  of  Scripture 
and  this  is  a  great  and  splendid  gift  of  God  in  you.  In 
truth  I  have  never  wished  that  you  should  go  beyond 
your  own  limitations  and  mingle  in  our  camp,  for  though 
you  might  help  us  greatly  with  your  genius  and  elo- 

•  De  libera  arbitrio  Aiavpifiri  sive  collatio,  ix.,  1215-1247. 


1527]  Freedom  of  the  Will  3S5 

quence,  yet  since  your  heart  is  not  in  it  it  would  be  safer 
to  serve  within  your  own  gift.  The  only  thing  to  be  feared 
was  that  you  would  sometime  be  persuaded  by  our  ene- 
mies to  publish  some  attack  upon  our  doctrine,  and  then 
necessity  would  compel  me  to  answer  you  to  your  face, 
I  have  restrained  others  who  were  trying  to  draw  you 
into  the  arena  with  things  they  had  already  written,  and 
that  was  the  reason  why  I  wished  Hutten's  Expostulatio 
had  never  been  published, — and  still  more  your  Spongia, 
through  which,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  you  now  see  how 
easy  it  is  to  write  about  moderation  and  to  accuse  Luther 
of  lacking  it,  but  how  difficult,  nay,  impossible  it  is  to 
practice  it  except  through  a  singular  gift  of  the  Spirit. 

"  Believe  me,  then,  or  not,  yet  Christ  is  my  witness 
that  I  pity  you  from  my  heart,  because  the  hatred  and 
the  active  efforts  of  so  many  and  so  great  men  are  stirred 
up  against  you.  I  cannot  believe  that  you  are  not  dis- 
turbed by  these  things,  since  your  human  virtue  is  un- 
equal to  such  a  burden.  And  yet  perchance  they  too 
are  moved  by  a  justifiable  warmth,  because  they  feel 
themselves  attacked  by  you  with  unworthy  methods.  .  ,  . 

"  I,  however,  have  up  to  this  time  restrained  my  pen, 
no  matter  how  bitterly  you  have  stung  me,  and  have  told 
my  friends,  in  letters  which  you  have  read,  that  I  was 
going  to  restrain  it  until  you  should  come  out  openly. 
.  .  .  Now  then,  what  can  I  do  ?  Either  way  is  most 
trying  to  me.  I  could  wish — if  I  could  be  the  mediator 
— that  my  allies  would  cease  to  attack  you  with  such 
zeal  and  would  permit  your  old  age  to  fall  asleep  in  the 
peace  of  God  and  this  they  would  do,  in  my  opinion,  if 
they  would  consider  your  infirmity  and  the  greatness  of 
our  cause,  which  has  long  since  passed  beyond  your 
limitations  ;  especially  now  that  the  matter  has  gone  so 
far  that  there  is  little  to  fear  for  our  cause,  even  if 
35 


3^6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

Erasmus  fight  against  it  with  all  his  might,  nay,  though 
sometimes  he  scatter  stings  and  bites.  Yet,  on  the  other 
hand,  my  dear  Erasmus,  if  only  you  would  consider  their 
weakness  and  would  restrain  from  those  biting  and  cut- 
ting figures  of  rhetoric,  so  that  if  you  cannot  or  dare  not 
go  with  us  altogether,  you  may  at  least  leave  us  alone 
and  deal  with  your  own  subjects.  For  that  they  [Eras- 
mus' '  Lutheran '  assailants]  are  but  ill  bearing  your 
attacks,  there  is  good  reason,  namely,  because  their  hu- 
man weakness  greatly  dreads  the  name  and  authority  of 
Erasmus  and  because  to  be  once  bitten  by  Erasmus 
is  quite  a  different  thing  from  being  crushed  by  all  the 
papists  together. 

"  I  desire  to  have  said  these  things,  most  excellent 
Erasmus,  in  witness  of  my  friendly  feeling  towards  you. 
I  pray  that  God  may  give  you  a  spirit  worthy  of  your 
fame  ;  but  if  God  delays  with  his  gift  to  you,  I  beg  you 
meanwhile,  if  you  can  do  no  more,  to  remain  a  spectator 
of  our  conflict  and  not  to  join  forces  with  our  opponents, 
especially  not  to  publish  books  against  me,  as  I  will 
publish  nothing  against  you.  Finally,  consider  that 
those  who  complain  that  they  are  attacked  under  the 
Lutheran  name  are  men  like  you  and  me,  in  whom 
much  ought  to  be  overlooked  and  forgiven.  As  Paul 
says  :  '  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens.'  There  has  been 
biting  enough  ;  now.  let  us  see  to  it  that  we  be  not  con- 
sumed by  mutual  strife,  a  spectacle  the  more  wretched 
inasmuch  as  it  is  perfectly  certain  that  neither  side  is  at 
heart  opposed  to  true  piety  and  that  if  it  were  not  for 
obstinacy,  each  would  be  quite  satisfied  with  its  own. 
Pardon  myfeeble  speech  and  farewell  in  the  Lord." 

The  impression  of  this  letter  is  one  of  sad  but 
confident  sincerity.     Luther  is  not  afraid  of  Eras- 


15271  Freedom  of  the  Will  387 

mus  because  he  is  unshakably  convinced  of  the 
justice  of  his  own  cause,  but  he  would  gladly  be 
spared  the  necessity  of  going  into  an  encounter  which 
would  make  even  more  evident  to  the  world  than  it 
was  already  the  difference  between  his  own  and 
Erasmus'  views  of  reform.  His  tone  is  lofty,  arrog- 
ant if  we  will,  because  he  is  speaking  for  what  he 
believes  to  be  divine  truth  and  to  a  man  who  seemed 
to  him  as  yet  untouched  by  the  real  divine  spark. 
He  acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  the  great 
scholar,  but  cannot  see  why  Erasmus  may  not  con- 
tinue to  find  full  scope  for  his  talents  on  the  lines 
he  has  been  following.  He  did  not  succeed  in  stay- 
ing the  publication  of  the  essay  on  free  will,  but 
at  all  events  the  moderation  of  its  tone  shows  a 
notable  effort  on  the  part  of  Erasmus  to  avoid  irritat- 
ing language. 

The  treatise,  published  in  1524,  is  a  short  one, 
covering  sixteen  folio  pages.  It  consists  chiefly  of 
a  careful  historical  examination  of  passages  of  Script- 
ure, both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  in  which 
the  subject  seems  to  be  alluded  to.  So  far  as  the 
argument  itself  is  concerned,  the  work  is  of  little 
interest.  Erasmus  for  the  most  part  carefully  avoids 
original  discussion  and  holds  himself  closely  to 
authority.  Since  the  beginning,  he  says,  there  has 
never  been  anyone  to  deny  free  will  entirely  ex- 
cept "  Manichaeus  "  and  Wiclif.  Yet  Luther  gives 
no  weight  to  all  this  and  falls  back  upon  Scripture. 
Very  good,  but  this  is  only  what  all  do.  ' '  Both  sides 
accept  and  revere  the  same  Scripture.  The  battle 
is  only  about  the  meaning  of  Scripture,"  and  in 


388  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

getting  at  the  meaning  we  ought  to  pay  respect  to 
talent  and  learning.  Of  course  the  only  sound  in- 
terpretation comes  through  the  gift  of  the  Spirit ; 
but  where  is  the  Spirit  ?  The  chances  are  much 
greater  that  it  is  to  be  found  among  those  to  whom 
God  has  given  ordination,  just  as  we  believe  more 
easily  that  grace  is  given  to  a  baptised  man  than  to 
an  unbaptised  one. 

"  If  Paul  commands  his  time,  in  which  the  gift  of  the 
Spirit  was  flourishing,  to  prove  the  spirits,  whether  they 
be  of  God,  what  must  we  do  in  this  fleshly  age  ?  How 
then  shall  we  judge  the  spirits  ?  by  learning  ?  On  both 
sides  there  are  men  of  learning.  By  the  life  ?  there  are 
sinners  on  both  sides.  In  the  other  life  is  the  whole 
choir  of  the  saints  who  approve  the  freedom  of  the 
will.  *  But,'  they  say,  *  those  were  mortals  *  ;  true,  and 
I  am  comparing  men  with  men,  not  men  with  gods.  I 
am  asked  :  *  What  have  majorities  to  do  with  the  mean- 
ing of  Scripture  ? '  I  answer  :  *  What  have  minorities  to  do 
with  it  ? '  I  am  asked  :  *  How  does  the  mitre  help  in  un- 
derstanding Scripture  ? '  I  answer  :  *  How  does  the  cloak 
help  or  the  cowl  ? '  I  am  asked  :  *  What  has  the  under- 
standing of  philosophy  to  do  with  the  understanding  of 
Scripture  ? '  I  answer  :  *  What  has  ignorance  to  do  with 
it  ? '  I  am  asked  :  *  What  can  be  done  for  a  knowledge 
of  Scripture  by  a  Council,  in  which  it  may  happen  that 
no  one  has  the  Spirit  ? '  I  answer  :  '  What  can  be  done 
by  private  gatherings  of  a  few  men,  among  whom  it  is 
far  more  probable  that  no  one  has  the  Spirit  ? '     .     .     . 

"  If  you  ask  them  by  what  proof  they  know  the  true 
sense  of  Scripture,  they  reply,  '  By  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit.*     If  you   ask  how  they  come  to  have  the  Spirit, 


1527]  Freedom  of  the  Will  389 

rather  than  those  whose  miracles  have  been  known  to 
all  the  world,  they  reply  as  if  there  had  been  no  Gos- 
pel in  the  world  for  thirteen  hundred  years.  If  you  ask 
of  them  a  life  worthy  of  the  Spirit,  they  reply  that  they 
are  justified  by  faith,  not  by  works.  If  you  ask  for 
miracles  they  tell  you  that  these  have  long  since  ceased 
and  that  there  is  no  need  of  them  in  the  present  clear 
light  of  Scripture.  If  you  deny  that  Scripture  is  clear 
on  this  point,  upon  which  so  many  of  the  greatest  men 
have  been  involved  in  darkness,  the  circle  comes  round 
again  to  its  beginning." 

Now^  all  this  is  very  clever — too  clever,  in  fact ;  for 
it  amounts  to  nothing  but  an  elaborate  defence  of 
the  principle  of  human  authority  in  belief.  By 
means  of  this  introduction,  Erasmus  sets  himself 
squarely  against  the  principle  of  free  interpretation 
of  the  original  sources  of  Christianity  by  the  light 
of  reason  and  knowledge,  for  which  the  Reforma- 
tion was  really  working  and  towards  which  he  him- 
self by  his  own  New  Testament  work  had  been 
contributing. 

Another  principle  of  Erasmus,  especially  irritat- 
ing to  Luther,  was  that  the  truth  should  not  always 
be  spoken,  a  maxim  as  obviously  true  as  the  ap- 
plication of  it  was  liable  to  gross  abuse. 

"  Let  us  then  suppose,"  he  says,  "  that  it  be  true  in 
some  sense,  as  Wiclif  and  Luther  have  said,  that  '  what- 
ever is  done  by  us,  is  done,  not  by  free  will  but  by  pure 
necessity,'  what  more  inexpedient  than  to  publish  this 
paradox  to  the  world  ?  Or,  let  us  suppose  that  in  a 
certain  sense  it  is  true,  as  Augustine  somewhere  says  : 


390  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

*  God  works  both  good  and  evil  in  us,  and  rewards  his 
own  good  works  in  us  and  punishes  his  own  evil  works 
in  us,'  what  a  door  to  impiety  this  saying  would  open 
to  countless  mortals,  if  it  were  spread  abroad  in  the 
world  !  .  .  .  What  weak  man  would  keep  up  the 
perpetual  and  weary  conflict  against  the  flesh  ?  What 
evil  man  would  strive  to  correct  his  life  ?  Who  could  per- 
suade his  soul  to  love  with  his  whole  heart  a  God  who 
has  prepared  a  hell  glowing  with  eternal  tortures  that  he 
may  there  avenge  upon  miserable  men  his  own  misdeeds 
as  if  he  delighted  in  human  tortures  ? " 

Here  was  an  objection  to  Augustinianism  as  old 
as  Augustine  himself,  but  the  fact  was  that  it  had 
never  yet  been  sustained  and  was  not  likely  to 
be.  Even  if  it  had  been,  that  could  not  affect  the 
principle  Erasmus  was  now  concerned  with ;  namely, 
that  truth  which  seemed  likely  to  make  any  confu- 
sion in  the  world  ought  not  to  be  spoken.' 

Having  fortified  himself  on  these  preliminary 
points,  Erasmus  lays  out  the  problem  with  great 
clearness  and  then  proceeds  with  the  examination 
of  scripture  passages  on  both  sides.  It  would  be 
idle  to  follow  this  process,  by  which,  proverbially, 
anyone  can  prove  anything.  Of  course  Erasmus 
finds  the  weight  of  Scripture  on  his  side,  as  his  op- 
ponents found  it  on  theirs.     Far  more  important 


"  In  a  letter  to  Aloisius  Marlianus(iii.',  545-C),  Erasmus  says  :  "  I 
know  that  everything  ought  to  be  borne  rather  than  that  the  public 
order  should  be  disturbed  ;  I  know  it  is  the  part  of  piety  sometimes 
to  hide  the  truth,  and  that  the  truth  ought  not  to  be  put  forth  in 
every  place,  nor  at  every  time,  nor  in  every  presence,  nor  in  every 
way,  nor  always  in  its  entirety." 


1527]  Freedom  of  the  Will  391 

and  interesting  is  his  own  personal  declaration  of 
faith.  Put  in  a  word,  it  was  that  one  ought  to  allow 
to  man  some  share  in  his  own  good  actions;  not  a 
great  share,  only  "  non  nihil.''  In  fact,  this  is 
really  the  only  thing  he  finds  to  criticise  in  the 
Lutheran  doctrine,  the  overemphasis  on  the  ele- 
ment of  grace  in  human  action. 

"  '  Doubtless  to  them  [the  Lutherans]  it  seems  perfectly 
in  harmony  with  the  simple  obedience  of  the  Christian 
soul  that  man  should  depend  wholly  upon  the  will  of 
God,  should  place  all  his  hope  and  trust  in  His  pro- 
mises, and,  knowing  how  wretched  he  is  of  himself,  should 
marvel  and  adore  His  boundless  mercy  which  is  poured 
out  upon  us  freely  in  such  large  measure  and  should  en- 
trust himself  wholly  to  His  will,  whether  He  wishes  to 
save  or  to  condemn  ;  that  man  should  take  no  credit  to 
himself  for  His  kindnesses,  but  should  ascribe  all  the 
glory  to  His  grace,  bearing  in  mind  that  man  is  only 
the  living  organ  of  the  divine  spirit,  purified  and  con- 
secrated by  His  free  goodness,  ruled  and  governed  by 
His  inscrutable  wisdom.  There  is  nothing  here  which 
anyone  can  claim  for  his  own  strength  and  yet  one  may 
with  confidence  hope  from  Him  the  reward  of  eternal 
life — not  because  he  has  deserved  it  by  good  deeds,  but 
because  it  has  seemed  best  to  His  goodness  to  promise 
it  to  His  faithful.  It  is  the  part  of  men  earnestly  to 
pray  God  that  he  may  impart  and  increase  His  spirit  in 
us,  to  give  thanks  if  any  good  is  done  through  us,  to 
worship  His  power  in  all  things,  to  marvel  at  His 
wisdom,  and  to  love  His  goodness. 

"  All  this  I  too  most  heartily  approve.     It  agrees  with 

'ix.,  1241-F. 


392  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

holy  Scripture.  It  answers  to  the  profession  of  those 
who,  once  dead  to  the  world,  are  at  the  same  time  buried 
with  Christ  by  baptism,  so  that  through  mortifying  the 
flesh,  they  may  live  and  act  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  in 
whose  body  they  are  implanted  by  faith.  Truly  a  pious 
opinion  and  worthy  of  all  approval,  which  takes  away 
from  us  all  pride,  which  lays  all  the  glory  and  all  our 
hope  upon  Christ,  which  casts  out  all  fear  of  men  or 
demons  and  makes  us  distrustful  of  our  own  defences, 
but  bold  and  full  of  courage  in  God.  I  applaud  all  this 
gladly  until  it  becomes  extravagant.  For  when  I  hear  that 
man  is  so  completely  without  merit  that  all  the  works 
even  of  pious  men,  are  sinful  ;  when  I  hear  that  our 
wills  can  do  no  more  than  clay  in  the  hand  of  the  potter  ; 
when  I  hear  that  all  we  do  or  will  is  to  be  referred  to 
absolute  necessity, — my  mind  is  disturbed  by  many 
scruples." 

We  see  how  near  he  comes  to  the  Lutheran  posi- 
tion. Its  emphasis  on  the  sinfulness  of  man  and  the 
direct  responsibility  to  God  appeals  to  him.  Only, 
like  so  many  before  and  since,  he  revolts  against  the 
injustice  of  a  theory  which  would  punish  man  for 
sins  he  has  not  committed.  He  cannot  escape  from 
the  ordinary  standards  of  human  reward  and  pun- 
ishment. His  idea  of  God  is  offended  by  what 
seems  to  him  a  cruel  and  unfeeling  conception.  He 
cannot  ascribe  to  God  any  quality  which  would  be 
a  disgrace  to  manhood. 

"  Surely  everyone  would  call  him  a  cruel  and  unjust 
master,  who  should  flog  a  slave  to  death  because  he  was 
not  beautiful  enough  or  had  a  crooked  nose  or  was  other- 
wise deformed.     Would  not  the  slave  be  right  in  com- 


1527]  Freedom  of  the  Will  393 

plaining  to  the  master  who  was  slaying  him  :  '  Why 
should  I  be  punished  for  what  I  cannot  help  ?'  And  he 
would  be  still  more  justified  in  saying  this  if  it  were  in 
the  power  of  the  master  to  remedy  the  defect  of  the 
slave,  as  it  is  in  the  power  of  God  to  change  our  wills 
or  if  the  master  had  caused  in  the  slave  the  very  defect 
at  which  he  now  takes  offence,  as,  for  example,  if  he 
had  cut  off  his  nose  or  disfigured  his  face  with  scars, 
as  God,  according  to  some  people,  has  wrought  all  the 
evil  that  is  in  us,"  ' 

This  is  the  familiar  argument  of  all  anti-Augustin- 
ianism  from  the  beginning  until  now.  So  long  as 
the  discussion  has  to  be  carried  on  with  the  weapons 
of  the  ancient  theology,  it  is  hard  to  see  how  the 
issue  can  be  stated  otherwise.  So  long  as  both 
parties  were  acting  on  the  theory  of  a  universe  with 
a  God  outside  of  it  and  assumed  the  existence  of 
good  and  evil  as  absolute  entities,  they  must  neces- 
sarily part  company  in  their  definitions  of  this  God 
and  of  his  relation  to  good  and  evil.  Each  would 
fall  back  upon  such  human  analogies  as  seemed  to 
come  nearest  to  his  own  divine  ideal.  The  real 
issue  was  far  beyond  the  comprehension  of  either 
party.  Each  was  seeking  a  solution  where  no  solu- 
tion was  possible.      Erasmus  said: 

"  In  my  judgment  free  will  might  have  been  so  defined 
as  to  avoid  that  confidence  in  our  own  merits  and  those 
other  difficulties  which  Luther  avoids  and  also  the  diffi- 
culties I  have  enumerated  above,  without  losing  those 
valuable  things   which   Luther   praises.     This   solution 

'  ix.,  I243-B. 


394  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

seems  to  me  to  be  found  in  the  opinion  of  those  who  as- 
cribe entirely  to  grace  the  first  impulse  by  which  our  minds 
are  set  in  motion,  and  only  in  the  course  of  this  motion 
allow  a  something  to  the  will  of  man  which  has  not  with- 
drawn itself  from  the  grace  of  God.  But  since  all  things 
have  three  parts,  beginning,  progress,  and  completion, 
they  ascribe  the  two  extremes  to  grace  and  only  in  the 
progress  admit  that  the  free  will  does  something  ; — but 
even  this  it  does  in  such  a  way  that  in  the  same  individ- 
ual act  two  causes  work  together,  the  grace  of  God  and 
the  will  of  man,  grace  being  the  principal  cause  and  the 
will  the  secondary  cause,  which  of  itself  can  do  nothing, 
whereas  the  principal  cause  is  sufficient  to  itself.  Just 
as  the  native  force  of  fire  burns  and  yet  the  principal 
cause  [of  the  burning]  is  God,  who  acts  through  the  fire 
and  would  be  sufficient  alone,  whereas  the  fire  if  this 
should  withdraw  itself  could  accomplish  nothing  with- 
out it." ' 

This  has  an  almost  Pelagian  sound.  It  is  in  fact 
nearly  the  attitude  of  the  moderate  anti-Augustinian 
party  of  the  fifth  century,  when  it  was  trying  to  show 
how  orthodox  it  was.  Erasmus  goes  on  to  illustrate 
the  same  point  with  abundant  and  clever  illustra- 
tion, and  finally  comes  to  the  question  of  "  original 
sin,"  the  inevitable  crux  of  the  whole  discussion. 

"  *  They  exaggerate  original  sin  beyond  all  measure," 
he  says;  "they  would  have  it  that  the  most  splendid 
powers  of  our  human  nature  are  so  corrupted  by  it,  that 
we  can  do  nothing  of  ourselves  except  to  be  ignorant  of 
God  and  to  hate  Him.     Not  even  he  who  is  justified  by 

'  ix.,  1244-A.  *ix.,  1246-B. 


1527]  Freedom  of  the  Will  395 

faith  can  do  any  act  which  is  not  a  sin  ;  this  very  tend- 
ency to  sin  left  over  to  us  from  the  sin  of  our  first  par- 
ents they  call  sin,  and  declare  it  irresistible,  so  that 
there  is  no  command  of  God  which  even  a  man  justified 
by  faith  can  fulfil  ;  but  so  many  commands  of  God  have 
no  other  aim  than  that  God's  grace  may  be  magnified 
through  his  granting  of  salvation  without  regard  to  our 
merits!  ...  If  God  has  burdened  man  with  so  many 
commands  which  have  no  other  effect  than  to  make  him 
hate  God  the  more,  do  they  not  make  him  out  more  un- 
merciful than  Dionysius,  tyrant  of  Sicily,  who  purposely 
made  many  laws  which  he  expected  most  persons  would 
not  obey  unless  insisted  upon,  then  for  a  while  over- 
looked offences  until  he  saw  that  almost  everyone  had 
violated  them,  and  then  began  to  call  them  to  account, 
and  so  made  everyone  hate  him? 

"  This  kind  of  extravagance  Luther  seems  to  delight 
in,  in  order  that  he  might,  as  the  saying  is,  split  the  evil 
knot  of  others'  excesses  with  an  evil  wedge.  The  fool- 
ish audacity  of  certain  men  had  gone  to  extremes.  They 
were  selling  the  merits,  not  only  of  themselves,  but  of  all 
the  saints.  And  for  what  kind  of  works  ?  for  incanta- 
tions, for  muttering  of  psalms,  eating  of  fish,  fastings, 
vestments,  titles.  Now  Luther  drove  out  this  nail  with 
another  by  saying  that  there  are  no  merits  of  saints  at 
all,  but  that  all  the  works  of  pious  men  are  sins,  and  will 
bring  damnation,  unless  faith  and  God's  mercy  come  to 
their  aid, 

"  Again,  the  other  party  was  making  a  profitable  trade 
out  of  confessions  and  penances,  wherein  they  had  terri- 
bly ensnared  the  consciences  of  men  ;  and  also  out  of 
Purgatory,  about  which  they  had  handed  down  certain 
marvellous  notions.  This  error  their  opponents  would 
correct  by  saying  that  confession  is  a  device  of  Satan  and 


39^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

ought  not  to  be  required  ;  that  works  can  give  no  satis- 
faction for  sin  since  Christ  has  completely  paid  the  pen- 
alty for  the  sins  of  all  men,  and,  finally,  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  Purgatory.  So  one  side  says  that  the  de- 
crees even  of  their  little  priors  can  bind  us  by  the  pains 
of  hell  and  does  not  hesitate  to  promise  eternal  life  to 
those  who  obey  them.  The  other  side  tries  to  moderate 
this  extravagance  by  saying  that  all  the  decrees  of  popes, 
councils,  and  bishops  are  heretical  and  anti-Christian. 
If  one  side  had  exalted  extravagantly  the  power  of  the 
pope,  the  other  says  such  things  about  him  as  I  dare  not 
repeat.  Again,  one  party  says  that  the  vows  of  monks 
and  priests  bind  men  by  the  pains  of  hell,  and  that  for 
ever  ;  the  other  says  that  such  vows  are  utterly  impious 
and  ought  not  to  be  taken  ; — or,  if  they  have  been  taken, 
ought  not  to  be  kept.  Now  it  is  from  the  collision  of 
such  excesses  as  this  that  the  thunders  and  lightnings 
have  arisen  which  are  now  shattering  the  world.  If  both 
sides  are  to  go  on  thus  bitterly  defending  their  extreme 
views  I  perceive  that  the  battle  will  be  like  that  between 
Achilles  and  Hector,  who  were  so  equal  in  savagery  that 
only  death  could  separate  them.  ...  I  prefer  the 
opinion  of  those  who  attribute  something  to  free  will, 
but  a  great  deal  to  grace.  For  we  ought  not  so  to  avoid 
the  Scylla  of  pride  as  to  be  swept  into  the  Charybdis  of 
despair  and  indifference." 

So  the  treatise  ends  as  it  began,  by  showing  what 
all  reasonable  men  knew  before,  that  the  question 
has  two  sides  to  it,  but  without  giving  that  kind  of 
decided  utterance  which  the  critical  moment  de- 
manded. Viewed  as  an  abstract  treatment,  quite 
independently  of  the  circumstances,  it  was  a  moder- 
ate, clever,   good-tempered  discussion  of  a  philo- 


1527]  Freedom  of  the  Will  397 

sophic  problem ;  but  it  did  not  give  that  clear  note 
of  leadership  for  which,  above  all  else,  men  were 
listening.  Intellectually,  Erasmus'  position  was  as 
superior  to  that  of  Luther  as  was  the  temper  of  his 
argument  better  than  that  of  Luther's  reply.  The 
De  libera  arbitrio  was  welcomed  by  all  the  moderates 
of  the  day  and  doubtless  did  its  work  in  holding  to 
the  status  quo  many  a  wavering  spirit  which  other- 
wise might  have  been  drawn  into  the  reforming 
ranks.  While  the  weight  of  the  argument  is  obvi- 
ously thrown  as  far  as  possible  on  Luther's  side,  it 
called  attention  sharply  to  the  weakest  points  in  the 
Reformation  theology. 

As  soon  as  the"  Free  Will  "  was  published,  Eras- 
mus hastened,  as  usual,  to  justify  himself  by  writing 
in  all  directions  to  the  persons  whose  approval  was 
of  most  value  to  him, — to  Henry  VIIL,  Wolsey,  and 
Fisher  in  England, to  Melanchthon  and  Duke  George 
in  Germany,  and  to  Aleander  in  Italy.  He  repre- 
sents the  work  as  a  proof  of  his  courage — "  a  bold 
deed  in  Germany,"  he  says  to  Wolsey,  while  to 
Aleander  he  complains  that  enemies  of  his  in  Italy 
are  abusing  him  for  unsound  scholarship. 

**  They  call  me  'Errasmus  '  in  Rome,  as  if  your  writers 
had  never  made  a  mistake.  They  say  I  am  unfriendly  to 
Italy,  whereas  no  one  speaks  more  heartily  than  I  of  the 
genius  of  the  Italians.  ...  I  have  no  doubt  that 
you  and  I  would  get  on  beautifully,  if  we  could  only  live 
together." 

Luther  waited  a  full  year  before  replying  to  the 
Diatribe.     It  was  a  year  of  especial  trial  to  him,  for 


39^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

within  those  months  it  seemed  as  if  the  worst  pro- 
phecies of  his  worst  enemies  were  being  fulfilled.  All 
the  social  and  economic  restlessness  of  the  time  was 
beginning  to  make  use  of  his  teaching  as  a  justifica- 
tion for  revolt  against  the  existing  order  of  society. 
Wholly  against  his  will  he  found  himself  held  respon- 
sible for  confusions  he  abhorred  and  for  doctrines 
which  seemed  to  him  worse,  if  possible,  than  those 
he  had  undertaken  to  combat.  His  immediate  duty 
was  to  clear  himself  of  these  imputations ;  to  show 
how  utterly  foreign  to  his  spirit  and  his  aims  were 
the  theology  of  Carlstadt,  the  communistic  specula- 
tions of  Miinzer,  and  the  revolutionary  radicalism  of 
the  peasant  leaders.  He  accomplished  this  for  all 
who  were  able  to  follow  his  argumentation  in  the 
remarkable  series  of  pamphlets  published  in  1524 
and  1525.  Then  he  returned  to  the  assault  of  Eras- 
mus. The  most  striking  quality  of  the  long  and 
laboured  treatise,  De  servo  arbitrio,^  with  which  he 
replied  to  the  Diatribe,  is  its  perfect  frankness.  In- 
deed Luther  was  almost  compelled  to  frankness  by 
his  detestation  of  what  seemed  to  him  the  perilously 
shifty  method  of  his  opponent.  Erasmus  had 
deprecated  violence;  Luther  reminds  him  that  no 
great  good  ever  came  into  the  world  without  com- 
motion and  overturn  of  an  existing  order.  Christ 
came,  not  to  send  peace,  but  a  sword.  Erasmus 
had  said  that  true  things  were  not  to  be  uttered  at 
all  times  and  had  given  certain  illustrations ;  Luther 
disposes  of  this  point  by  showing  that  the  things 

'  Walch,  Luther's  IVerke,  xviii.,  2049.     An  English  translation  by 
Henry  Cole.     London,  1823. 


1527]  The  Spirit  399 

proposed  in  these  illustrations  were  not  true  and 
therefore,  of  course,  ought  not  to  be  told  at  any 
time.  Erasmus  had  asked :  "  If  there  is  no  freedom 
of  will,  who  will  try  to  amend  his  life  ?  "  Luther 
frankly  replied,  "  No  man.  No  man  can.  The 
elect  will  be  amended  by  the  divine  spirit ;  the  rest 
will  perish  unamended. "  Erasmus  had  said  that  a 
door  would  be  opened  to  all  iniquity  by  this  doc- 
trine. Luther  says :  "  So  be  it ;  that  is  a  part  of  the 
evil  that  is  to  be  borne ;  but  at  the  same  time  there 
is  opened  to  the  elect  a  door  to  salvation,  an  en- 
trance into  heaven,  a  way  to  God." 

On  the  crucial  point  of  authority  for  faith,  Eras- 
mus had  especially  assailed  what  seemed  to  him 
the  vague  and  uncertain  evidence  of  "  the  Spirit." 
Luther  replies  that  he  is  far  enough  from  agreeing 
with  those  whose  sole  reliance  is  upon  the  "  Spirit," 
of  which  they  boast.  He  has  had  a  bitter  enough 
fight  with  them  for  a  year  past.  In  the  same  way 
he  has  been  attacking  the  papacy  because  there  one 
is  always  hearing  that  the  Scriptures  are  obscure  and 
ambiguous,  and  that  we  ought  to  seek  at  Rome  for 
the  interpreting  Spirit, — the  most  disastrous  thing 
possible. 

"  Now  we  hold  this,  that  spirits  are  to  be  tried  and 
proved  by  a  twofold  judgment  ;  the  one  an  internal, 
whereby  a  man,  enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit  or  by  a 
special  gift  of  God  may,  so  far  as  he  and  his  own  salva- 
tion are  concerned,  decide  with  the  utmost  certainty  and 
distinguish  the  doctrines  and  opinions  of  all  men.  As  is 
written  [i  Cor.  ii.  15.],'  the  spiritual  man  judgeth  all  things, 
but  is  judged  by  no  man.'     This  is  an  essential  part  of 


400  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

faith,  and  is  necessary  for  everyone,  even  for  a  private 
Christian.  This  is  what  Ave  have  called  above  the  in- 
ternal clearness  of  Holy  Scripture  and  is  perhaps  what 
those  persons  meant  who  replied  to  you,  that  all  things 
were  to  be  decided  by  the  judgment  of  the  Spirit.  But 
this  kind  of  judgment  cannot  avail  for  another  person, 
and  is  not  in  question  here  ;  for  no  one,  I  believe,  can 
doubt  that  it  stands  as  I  have  said. 

"  Therefore  there  is  "a  second  kind  of  judgment,  an 
external,  whereby,  not  only  for  ourselves  but  for  others 
and  as  regards  the  salvation  of  others,  we  may  most 
surely  judge  the  spirits  and  opinions  of  all  men.  This 
judgment  belongs  to  the  public  ministry  of  the  Word  and 
to  the  external  office  and  especially  to  the  leaders  and 
heralds  of  the  Word.  This  we  make  use  of  when  we 
strengthen  the  weak  in  the  faith  and  confute  our  oppon- 
ents. This  we  have  called  above  the  '  external  clear- 
ness of  Scripture.'  And  so  we  say  that  all  spirits  are  to 
be  tried  in  the  sight  of  the  Church  with  Scripture  as  the 
judge." 

• 
After  this  long  introduction,  Luther  proceeds  to 
take  up,  one  after  another,  Erasmus'  references  to 
Scripture,  and  to  show  that  he  has  misunderstood 
them  because  he  has  applied  to  them  a  false  prin- 
ciple of  judgment.  We  are  not  concerned  with  this 
theological  fencing.  Our  interest  is  in  the  attitude 
of  the  two  men  towards  the  ultimate  question  of 
authority.  Erasmus,  the  "  individual,"  the  man 
of  the  Renaissance,  the  apostle  of  light,  the  fearless 
critic  of  evils  in  Church  and  society,  approaches  this 
great  doctrinal  question  with  the  timidity  of  a 
scholastic,  and  refers  it  finally  to  the  judgment  of 


1527]  Doctrinal  Opposition  401 

the  great  authorities  of  the  Church.  Luther,  the 
man  of  feeling,  the  thinker  who  only  prayed  to  be 
instructed,  who  gloried  in  being  the  slave  of  a  higher 
will,  comes  out  here  in  reality  as  a  champion  of  the 
boldest  liberty  of  human  judgment.  He  would 
settle  all  things  by  Scripture,  but  he  would  read  his 
Scripture  with  his  own  eyes  and  interpret  it  by  the 
light  of  that  evidence  of  the  Spirit  which  he  and  he 
alone  could  read  for  himself.  His  tone  is  one  of 
mingled  humility  and  arrogance,  but  we  have  no 
reason  to  question  his  sincerity  in  either  character. 
His  arrogance  was  that  of  a  man  who  felt  with  Paul : 
"Woe  is  unto  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel,"  He 
closes,  as  he  began,  by  praising  Erasmus'  learning, 
thanking  him  for  having  gone  straight  at  the  heart 
of  the  question,  instead  of  worrying  him,  as  others 
were  doing,  "  about  the  papacy,  purgatory,  indulg- 
ences, and  such  nonsense,"  and  warning  him  that 
henceforth  he  had  better  stick  to  his  trade  of  liter- 
ature and  let  theology  alone. 

By  the  year  1525  the  Lutheran  doctrine  may  be 
regarded  as  substantially  complete,  in  the  form  which 
it  was  to  take  in  the  Augsburg  Confession  of  1530. 
Erasmus  had  indeed,  as  Luther  said,  gone  straight 
to  the  point  by  which  that  doctrine  must  stand  or 
fall,  and  in  rejecting  it  he  had  made  it  impossible  for 
anyone  to  rank  him  with  the  reforming  party.  At 
the  same  time  he  had  shown  how  completely  he 
was  out  of  sympathy,  even  theologically,  with  the 
system  of  salvation  by  bona  opera,  which  the  Church 

was  trying  to  maintain.     More  than  ever  therefore 

36 


402  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

he  found  himself  out  of  tune  with  both  parties  and, 
since  all  the  world  was  now  rapidly  ranging  itself  on 
one  side  or  the  other,  he  experienced  a  growing 
sense  of  isolation  that  was  to  colour  his  remaining 
years. 

Logically  this  isolation  was  the  natural  outcome 
of  lifelong  habit.  To  be  free  of  all  obligations  was, 
we  have  continually  noted,  Erasmus'  chief  desire, 
and  that  motive,  consistently  followed,  could  lead 
nowhere  else  than  to  isolation.  Yet  here  we  touch 
once  more  upon  that  other  side  of  his  nature  which 
had  always  been  in  conflict  with  the  instinct  of  free- 
dom. In  spite  of  his  individuality  he  needed  ap- 
proval. The  breath  of  adulation  was  sweet  to  him. 
He  could  be  shabby  enough  to  a  friend,  if  he  thought 
himself  injured,  but  that  very  sensitiveness  betrayed 
his  need  of  friendship.  We  cannot  wonder  therefore 
that  henceforth,  with  increasing  age  and  infirmity, 
his  utterances  take  on  a  tone  of  increasing  sadness 
and  sense  of  loss. 

More  and  more,  too,  as  the  doctrines  of  the  re- 
formers spread  downward  into  all  classes  of  society 
and  outward  over  all  countries,  it  became  clearer 
and  clearer  to  the  established  authorities  that  their 
real  quarrel  was  not  with  this  or  that  doctrinal  quib- 
ble, nor  with  one  or  the  other  religious  sect  or  social 
organisation,  but  with  the  underlying  spirit  of  all 
these.  It  availed  little  that  Erasmus  rejected  the 
doctrine  of  the  Unfree  Will,  that  he  refused  to  be  a 
Lutheran  or  a  Zwinglian,  an  Anabaptist  or  a  social- 
ist. The  powers  threatened  by  all  these  felt,  and 
rightly  felt,  that  he  ^tood  for  something  more  dan- 


1527]  Doctrinal  Opposition  403 

gerous  still, — a  something  without  which  none  of 
the  sects  could  have  stood  alone  for  a  moment. 
That  something  was  the  spirit  of  criticism  and  of 
science  based  upon  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  the 
sources  of  Christian  truth. 

The  year  1525  marks  a  distinct  reactionary  move- 
ment. As,  on  the  one  hand,  the  social  and  econo- 
mic disturbances  were  the  severest  strain  on  the 
new  religious  awakening,  so,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  were  the  final  argument  to  convince  the  powers 
of  conservatism  that  it  was  now  or  never  with  them. 
For  a  moment  the  Church  had  seemed  to  waver. 
In  electing  as  pope  Adrian  VI.,  a  Northerner,  an 
intimate  of  the  young  emperor,  a  school-fellow  of 
Erasmus,  and  well  known  as  a  man  of  enlightened 
and  moderate  views,  the  Roman  Curia  had  seemed 
to  cut  itself  loose  from  an  exclusively  Roman  policy. 
That  policy  had  more  than  once  brought  the  papacy 
to  the  brink  of  ruin  and  was  to  do  so  more  than  once 
again,  but  for  the  moment  reformers  of  all  grades 
believed  that  a  substantial  progress  had  been  made. 
The  early  action  of  Adrian  had  confirmed  this  be- 
lief; but  the  pressure  was  too  great ;  the  papacy  was 
stronger  than  the  pope.  Adrian  died  in  1523  after 
a  disappointing  administration  of  a  single  year, 
and  the  proverbial  swing  of  the  papal  pendulum 
brought  to  the  chair  of  Peter  once  more  an  Italian — 
not  indeed  a  Roman,  but  a  man  as  completely  iden- 
tified with  the  curial  policy  as  Adrian  had  been 
unfamiliar  with  it. 

Giulio  dei'  Medici,  nephew  of  the  great  Lorenzo, 
devoted  from  his  earliest  years  to  the  ecclesiastical 


404  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

profession,  a  politician  trained  in  the  same  school 
with  Macchiavelli,  and  accepting  the  papacy  as 
the  natural  culmination  of  his  ambition,  was  pre- 
cisely the  kind  of  man  to  rally  all  the  resources  of 
the  Church  in  defence  of  its  imperilled  traditions. 
In  that  rally,  at  this  perilous  crisis,  no  half-way 
allegiance  could  be  useful.  Whatever  hopes  might 
have  been  placed  upon  Erasmus  by  Leo  and  Adriarv- 
were  by  this  time  pretty  efTectually  dissipated.  The 
kind  of  sledge-hammer  blows  which  the  papacy  of 
1525  needed  to  have  struck  in  its  defence  were  cer- 
tainly not  to  come  from  such  an  arm  as  this. 

Yet  there  occurred  no  oflficial  breach  with  any  of 
the  great  Catholic  powers.  On  the  accession  of 
Clement  VII.  Erasmus  sent  him  an  early  letter 
of  congratulation.  He  almost  repeats  the  language 
of  similar  addresses  to  former  popes.  Things  have 
been  going  badly  enough,  but  now  the  right  man 
for  the  emergency  has  come.  Especially  the  cause 
of  learning  may  well  expect  the  greatest  things  from 
a  Medicean  pope.  He  has  resisted  all  pressure  to 
take  sides  against  the  papacy,  and  yet  Stunica  is 
raging  against  him  in  Italy  unpunished,  to  the  dis- 
grace of  Rome  and  the  injury  of  the  papal  name. 

"  '  Believe  me,  most  holy  Father,  whoever  is  hiring  that 
play-actor,  a  man  born  for  this  kind  of  trickery,  is  doing 
a  very  poor  service  to  the  papacy  or  to  the  cause  of  the 
public  peace  ;  he  is  simply  serving  some  private  hatred 
and  to  that  end  making  use  of  another's  folly.  .  .  . 
I  have  always  submitted  myself  and  all  my  works  to  the 

»iii.',  783-E. 


1527]  Doctrinal  Opposition  405 

judgment  of  the  Roman  Church,  not  intending  to  resist, 
even  if  it  should  give  a  verdict  unfavourable  to  me.  For 
I  will  suffer  everything  rather  than  be  a  rebel  ;  and 
therein  I  place  my  confidence  that  your  Holiness'  sense 
of  justice  will  not  permit  me  to  be  given  up  to  the  mad 
hatred  of  a  few  men.  .  .  .  The  Emperor  and  the 
Lady  Margaret  are  calling  me  back  to  Brabant.  The 
French  king  is  inviting  me  with  mountains  of  gold  to 
come  to  him.  But  nothing  shall  tear  me  from  Rome  but 
death, — or  the  gravel  more  cruel  than  death, — if  only  I 
can  be  sure  that  your  justice  will  protect  me  against  false 
accusations  " 

The  familiar  reference  to  the  mountains  of  French 
gold,  which  have  been  serving  their  turn  w^ith  him 
any  time  these  ten  years  past,  but  which  have  no 
foundation  in  fact,  serve  to  indicate  the  value  of 
these  declarations.  It  is  unlikely  that  Erasmus  had 
the  least  intention  of  going  to  Rome.  The  phrase 
about  his  call  to  Brabant  appears  again,  somewhat 
elaborated,  in  a  letter  to  Cardinal  Campeggio,  dated 
1526,  but  almost  certainly  of  even  date  (February, 
1524)  with  the  one  to  Clement  just  quoted.  He 
speaks  here  of  his  very  feeble  health,  which  has  com- 
pelled him  to  take  a  house  by  himself  where  he  can 
have  an  open  fireplace.  He  cannot  leave  in  the  win- 
ter, but  is  planning  a  vacation  trip  for  the  coming 
summer,  and  would  gladly  betake  himself  isthuc, — 
presumably  to  the  German  Diet  at  Nuremberg 
whither  Campeggio  was  coming  as  papal  legate.  He 
goes  on  to  say  of  how  little  use  he  can  be  under  the 
circumstances,  though  he  will  gladly  do  what  he  can 
in  the  cause  of  peace.     He  promises  Campeggio  to 


4o6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

come  to  the  Diet  if  he  can,  at  the  same  moment  that 
he  is  assuring  Clement  that  nothing  shall  tear  him 
{avellere)  from  his  beloved  Rome,  if  he  is  able  to 
move  from  Basel  at  all.  If  we  doubt  his  intention 
to  go  to  Rome  we  may  be  still  more  certain  that  a 
German  Diet  in  1524  was  the  very  last  place  where 
he  would  have  cared  to  show  himself.  This,  by  the 
way,  was  the  Diet  at  which  Campeggio  was  warned 
not  to  wear  his  cardinal's  hat,  and  not  to  make  the 
sign  of  benediction  or  of  the  cross.* 

So  far  as  we  can  ever  say  that  Erasmus  had  inten- 
tions about  his  future,  we  may  venture  to  believe 
that  he  meant  to  end  his  days  at  Basel.  On  one 
subject  it  was  almost  impossible  for  him  to  exagger- 
ate, and  that  was  the  awful  agony  of  his  disease  in 
its  acute  stages  and  the  great  weakness  and  depres- 
sion in  the  interval.  The  wonder  is  that  he  could 
have  kept  so  steadily  at  work  and  could  so  often,  in 
the  midst  of  his  reproaches  upon  fortune  and  his 
enemies,  display  that  keen,  playful  humour  which 
was  his  greatest  charm. 

On  one  other  doctrinal  question,  of  vast  import- 
ance in  the  history  of  the  Reformation,  we  must 
examine  the  utterances  of  Erasmus;  namely,  on  the 
question  of  the  Eucharist.  While  the  problem  of 
the  freedom  of  the  will  involved  the  most  pro- 
found philosophical  speculation,  the  eucharistic  con- 
troversy had  to  deal  with  a  matter  which,  viewed 
from  one  side,  was  a  mere  question  of  usage,  but 
from  another  led  at  once  into  a  region  where  blind 

'  Ranke,  History  of  Germany,  bk.  iii.,  ch.  iv. 


1527]  The  Eucharist  407 

faith  was  plainly  set  in  opposition  to  human  reason. 
From  an  early  day  the  organised  Church  had  seen 
the  value  of  the  ideas  which  had  taken  form  in  the 
service  of  the  Eucharist  and  had  insisted  with  absol- 
utely unwavering  determination  upon  the  doctrinal 
formula  which  expressed  them.  First  brought 
sharply  before  the  mediaeval  world  by  the  contro- 
versy of  Paschasius  in  the  ninth  century,  the  issue 
was  revived  by  Berengar  of  Tours  in  the  eleventh, 
and  all  the  ingenuity  of  the  early  scholasticism  of 
Anselm's  day  was  displayed  in  giving  to  the  idea  a 
foundation  that  could  be  neither  misunderstood  nor 
evaded.  Thus  crystallised  into  a  philosophic  reality 
by  the  great  formulators  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
the  crass  statement  of  the  Church  had  been  ques- 
tioned anew  by  Wiclif.  Hus  had,  on  this  point,  it 
is  true,  professed  allegiance  to  the  Church,  but  the 
Hussite  party,  by  its  passionate  insistence  upon  the 
right  of  the  laity  to  receive  the  Eucharist  under  both 
forms,  had  protested  against  the  whole  conception 
of  the  sacrament  as  a  sacrifice.  So  also  the  tendency 
of  the  great  mystical  movement  had  been  to  accus- 
tom men's  minds  to  a  spiritual  interpretation  of 
outward  forms. 

That  was  the  stage  in  which  the  Reformation 
found  the  whole  subject  of  the  Eucharist.  Luther 
early  became  clear  on  two  points:  first,  that  the 
celebration  of  the  Eucharist  as  a  repetition  of  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ  upon  the  cross,  without  any  re- 
ference whatever  to  the  individual  communicant, — 
indeed,  as  was  oftenest  the  case,  without  any  lay 
communicant  at  all, — was  an  outrageous  violation  of 


4o8  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

every  truly  Christian  conception  of  the  institution, 
a  mere  piece  of  heathen  idolatry.  But,  secondly, 
Luther  still  clung  to  the  notion  that  a  something 
mysterious  and  miraculous  took  place  when  the 
formula  of  benediction  was  duly  uttered  by  the 
priest,  and  that  this  something  must  still  be  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  the  church  tradition.  "  Hoc  est 
corpus  meum"  must  have  some  literal  and  physical 
meaning.  Especially  as  he  saw  the  "  fanatics," 
who  were  not  afraid  to  use  their  reason  and  take 
the  consequences,  going  far  ahead  of  him  and  re- 
pudiating all  the  mystery  of  the  consecrated  symbol, 
he  found  himself  drawn  more  and  more  into  sym- 
pathy with  the  traditional  view.  The  Eucharist 
question  thus  became  the  test  of  distinction  not 
only  between  Catholic  and  Protestant  but  between 
moderate  and  radical  Protestant  as  well.  Plain 
men  like  Landgraf  Philip  of  Hessen,  who  wanted 
above  all  else  to  see  all  the  forces  of  Protestantism 
united  in  one  great  assault,  were  shocked  and  puz- 
zled to  find  that  men  who  seemed  to  them  to  stand 
for  precisely  the  same  things  were  held  apart  by 
such  a  mere  speculative  problem  as  this. 

Luther  said,  and  said  truly,  of  his  Protestant 
doctrinal  opponents,  "  these  men  are  of  another 
spirit,"  and  at  the  Conference  of  Marburg,  in  1529, 
when  the  whole  future  of  Protestantism  seemed  to 
hang  upon  the  union  of  the  Swiss  with  the  German 
branch,  his  personal  insistence  upon  the  out-and- 
out  literalness  of  the  Catholic  symbol  prevented 
that  union  forever.  He  saved  the  Lutheran  Church 
from  the  reproach  of  fanaticism  and  left  the  Swiss 


1527]  Tl^Eucharist  409 

Church  free  to  follow  its  more  liberal  course.  That 
is  where  the  Eucharist  question  drew  near  Eras- 
mus. He  began  to  feel  the  approach  of  danger  and, 
characteristically,  to  prepare  for  it.  We  have  no 
special  treatise  on  the  subject  from  his  hand,  though 
he  is  said  to  have  written  and  suppressed  two  such. 
His  expressions  in  regard  to  it  are  scattered  through 
his  apologetic  writing^B|In  the  "  Apology  against 
Certain  Spanish  Monks,"  published  in  1528,  there 
is  a  chapter '  in  which  he  replies  to  criticism  on  this 
point.  Here,  as  everywhere,  he  tries  to  draw  a 
clear  line  between  what  is  essential  and  what  is  non- 
essential to  the  Christian  faith.  Hutten,  he  says, 
found  fault  with  him  because  he  was  not  willing  to 
expose  himself  to  all  perils  for  the  sake  of  Luther's 
doctrine,  but  he  had  replied : 

"  I  would  gladly  be  a  martyr  for  Christ,  if  he  would 
give  me  strength,  but  I  am  not  willing  to  be  a  martyr  for 
Luther.  ,  .  .  Now  if  it  were  an  important  article 
of  faith  that  the  Mass  is  not  a  sacrifice,  as  Luther  main- 
tains, death  ought  to  be  sought  and  inflicted  on  its  ac- 
count. .  .  .  What  I  call  articles  of  faith  are  those 
handed  down  in  all  the  creeds  which  the  Church  repeats, 
— and  yet  I  do  not  deny  the  use  of  this  phrase  for  some 
doctrines  that  are  not  expressed  in  the  creeds.  As  to 
the  reasons  why  the  Eucharist  is  called  a  sacrifice,  there 
is  still  a  difference  among  theologians  as  there  is  also  on 
many  points  about  the  primacy  of  the  pope.  .  .  . 
When  I  have  stated  that  we  ought  to  agree  with  the 
Church  in  all  points,  even  if  man's  reason  and  the  appar- 
ent meaning  of  Scripture  were  opposed,  I  make  it  clear 

' ix.,  1064-1066. 


4IO  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

enough  that  I  will  conform  at  once,  if  anyone  will  prove 
to  me  what  the  Church  teaches  on  this  point." 

As  regards  the  communion  in  both  kinds,  his 
critics  tried  to  trip  him  on  the  ground  of  a  letter  to 
Bohemia  in  which  he  had  seemed  to  show  some 
favour  to  the  new-old  doctrine.  He  protests  that 
he  never  meant  to  question  the  teaching  of  the 
Church  but  only  to  suggest  that  more  weighty 
reasons  than  he  had  as  yet  heard  ought  to  be  given 
for  changing  a  practice  which  undoubtedly  pre- 
vailed in  the  early  centuries  of  the  Church. 

"  Nor  do  I  doubt  that  there  were  such  reasons,  which 
perhaps  on  account  of  some  scruple  they  preferred  not 
to  mention  ; — for  it  is  not  an  impious  thing  in  itself  to 
partake  under  both  forms.  ...  As  for  the  charge 
that  on  this  point  as  on  many  others  I  agree  with  Lu- 
ther, if  I  should  say  that  is  a  straight  lie,  they  would 
think  me  lacking  in  courtesy  ;  but  bad  luck  to  that 
crafty  book  from  which  these  extracts  are  taken  !  I  try 
to  persuade  men  to  conform  to  the  requirements  of  the 
Roman  Church  in  partaking  of  the  Eucharist ;  is  that 
agreeing  with  Luther  ?  Let  anyone  read  what  he  writes 
on  this  business  !  " 

So  anxious  was  Erasmus  to  set  himself  right  with 
the  world  on  this  all-important  topic,  that  in  1530, 
after  his  removal  to  Freiburg,  he  published  an 
edition  of  a  treatise  by  one  Algerus,  a  Benedictine 
monk  of  Liege,  who  died  at  Cluny  in  1131.  This 
work,  entitled  A  Treatise  on  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Body  and  Blood  of  our  Lord,  was  written  in  refuta- 


1527]  The  Eucharist  411 

tion  of  Berengar  of  Tours.  In  his  dedication  '  Eras- 
mus says:  "  I  have  never  doubted  the  reality  of  the 
body  of  the  Lord,  and  yet  somehow  by  the  reading 
of  this  work  my  faith  has  been  not  a  little  confirmed, 
and  my  reverence  increased."  In  the  course  of  this 
dedication  he  shows  us  very  plainly  the  working  of 
his  mind.  The  doctrine  he  admits  to  be  of  original 
validity,  but  as  to  its  forniy  and  as  to  the  precise 
expressions  one  ought  to  use,  there  has  been  an  his- 
torical development  and  this  has  come  about  by 
human  means,  through  the  natural  process  of  con- 
troversy. 

"  Would  that  they  who  have  followed  Berengar  in  his 
errors  would  follow  him  also  in  his  repentance,  and  that 
their  error  may  turn  to  the  advantage  of  the  Church  ! 
There  are  innumerable  questions  about  this  sacrament, 
as,  how  the  change  of  substance  takes  place  ;  how  accid- 
ents can  exist  without  a  substance  ;  how  the  bread  and 
the  wine  retain  the  colour,  the  smell,  the  taste,  the  power 
of  satisfying,  of  intoxicating,  and  of  nourishing  which 
they  had  before  they  were  consecrated  ;  at  what  moment 
they  begin  and  cease  to  be  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ; 
whether,  if  the  form  be  destroyed  another  substance 
succeeds  ;  how  the  same  body  may  be  in  innumerable 
places  ;  how  the  very  body  of  a  man  can  be  under  the 
least  crumb  of  bread  and  many  other  things  which  may 
properly  be  discussed  by  those  of  trained  intelligence. 
For  the  multitude  it  is  enough  to  believe  that  after  the 
consecration  the  bread  and  the  wine  are  the  true  body 
and  blood  of  the  Lord,  which  cannot  be  divided,  nor 
injured,  nor  is  exposed  to  any  harm,  whatever  may  hap- 

•  iii.,  1274-1277. 


412  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

pen  to  the  elements.  ...  In  short,  in  answer  to  all 
the  doubts  of  human  reasoning,  there  comes  to  us  the 
unlimited  power  of  God,  to  whom  nothing  is  impossible 
and  nothing  difficult." 

In  other  words,  Erasmus  in  1 530  is  perfectly  satis- 
fied with  the  same  mental  attitude  which  Paschasius 
had  displayed  in  the  ninth  century,  at  a  moment 
when  European  culture  was  but  just  rising  above  its 
lowest  point.  His  only  criticism  is  reserved  for  the 
excesses  of  the  Church  system.  His  description  of 
the  proper  state  of  mind  of  the  devout  worshipper  is 
spiritual  enough  to  be  adopted  by  the  most  eager 
Protestant. 

**  Once,"  he  says,  "  when  the  Church  was  in  its  best 
estate,  it  knew  but  one  sacrament  and  the  bishop  alone 
performed  it.  The  throng  of  sacramental  persons  were 
attracted  first  by  piety  and  then  by  gain.  At  length  the 
thing  has  gone  so  far  that  many  study  for  the  priest- 
hood precisely  as  one  man  learns  to  be  a  mechanic,  an- 
other a  cobbler,  another  a  mason  or  a  tailor.  To  these 
the  Mass  is  only  a  means  of  livelihood." 

Whenever  we  find  Erasmus  protesting  with  espec- 
ial vehemence  that  he  does  not  believe  a  thing,  we 
may  be  tolerably  sure  that  he  has  already  given  good 
reason  for  suspicion  that  he  did  believe  it.  In  the 
case  of  the  Eucharist  such  suspicion  was  well 
grounded.  The  objections  to  the  doctrine,  even  on 
its  philosophical  side,  were  such  as  must  have  ap- 
pealed strongly  to  his  common  sense.  The  abuses 
of  it  in  practice,  especially  the  whole  theory  of  the 


1527]  The  Eucharist  413 

Mass  as  a  sacrifice,  performed  by  the  priest  at  so 
much  per  performance,  were  precisely  of  the  kind 
against  which  he  had  declaimed  all  his  life  long. 
When  the  doctrine  began  to  be  criticised  by  the 
reformers,  especially  by  his  Swiss  neighbours,  he 
allowed  himself  some  tolerably  free  expressions  of 
opinion.  The  leader  of  Swiss  thought  on  this,  as 
on  most  theological  subjects,  was  CEcolampadius, 
the  reformed  preacher  of  Basel.  He  had  published 
his  view,  and  Erasmus'  friend,  Bilibald  Pirkheimer 
of  Nuremberg,  had  replied,  defending  a  view  re- 
sembling that  of  Luther.  In  June,  1526,  Erasmus 
wrote  to  Pirkheimer  reviewing  very  briefly  the  state 
of  the  reforming  ideas  in  the  several  European 
countries.     He  says ' : 

"  I  should  not  be  displeased  with  the  view  of  CEco- 
lampadius, if  the  consent  of  the  Church  were  not  against 
it.  For  I  see  no  meaning  in  a  body  without  sensible  form, 
nor  what  use  it  could  be  if  it  were  perceived  by  the 
senses,  provided  only  that  a  spiritual  grace  were  present 
in  the  elements.  And  yet  I  cannot  depart  from  the  con- 
sent of  the  Church  and  never  have  so  departed.  You 
differ  from  CEcolampadius  in  such  a  way  that  you  seem 
to  prefer  to  agree  with  Luther  rather  than  with  the 
Church.  You  quote  Luther  with  a  little  more  respect 
than  was  necessary,  when  you  might  have  cited  the  au- 
thority of  others.  .  ,'  .  With  your  usual  prudence 
you  will  not  show  this  letter  to  anyone." 

In  the  year  following  he  begins  a  letter  to  Pirk- 
heimer thus  * : 

■iii.',  941-A.  •iii.',  1028-A. 


414  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

"  From  your  pen,  my  dear  Bilibald,  I  have  never  feared 
anything,  having  long  tested  your  cautious  considerate- 
ness  and  your  persistent  loyalty  in  friendship  ;  but  it 
did  offend  me  to  have  CEcolampadius  mixing  up  my 
name  in  his  books  without  any  reason,  when  he  knows 
from  me,  that  it  is  unpleasant  to  me  to  be  named  by 
him,  more  unpleasant  to  be  abused,  and  most  unpleasant 
to  be  praised.  He  keeps  it  up  without  end.  I  have 
never  ascribed  anything  of  this  to  my  dear  Bilibald  ;  for 
many  things  grieve  us  which  we  can  ascribe  to  no  one. 
If  I  had  some  little  doubt  about  your  unusually  long 
silence,  that  ought  not  to  surprise  you,  considering  the 
changeableness  of  human  affections.  .  .  .  And  I  do 
not  regret  my  little  suspicions  since  they  have  brought 
me  these  longed-for  letters." 

Apparently  Erasmus  suspected  that  Pirkheimer 
had,  after  all,  let  CEcolampadius  know  that  he  was 
inclined  to  the  spiritual  view  of  the  Eucharist. 
Farther  on  he  writes : 

"  I  said  among  friends  that  I  could  follow  his  opinion, 
if  the  authority  of  the  Church  would  approve  it  ;  but  I 
added  that  I  could  by  no  means  differ  from  the  Church. 
But  by  *  Church  '  I  mean  the  consent  of  all  Christian 
people.  .  .  .  How  much  the  authority  of  the  Church 
avails  with  others  I  know  not,  but  it  is  so  important  to 
me  that  I  could  agree  with  Arians  or  Pelagians,  if  the 
Church  should  approve  what  they  taught.  Not  that  the 
words  of  Christ  are  not  sufficient  for  me,  but  it  is  no 
wonder  that  I  follow  as  interpreter  the  Church,  upon 
the  authority  of  which  I  believe  in  the  canonical  Script- 
ures. Others  perhaps  have  more  talent  or  more  strength 
than  I,  but  I  rest  nowhere  so  safely  as  in  the  certain 


BILIBALD  PIRKHEIMER  OF  NUREMBERG. 

FROM  AN  ENQRAVINQ  BY  ALBRECHT  DUREH,   IN  "  ERA8MI  OPERA,"  PUBLISHED  AT  LEYDEN,    1703. 


1527]  The  Eucharist  415 

judgment  of  the  Church.     Of  reasons  and  argumenta- 
tions there  is  no  end." 


In  short,  Erasmus  had  on  this  subject,  as  he  had 
usually  had  on  all  controverted  points,  one  opinion 
for  his  friends  and  another  for  the  world.  His  array 
of  "  ifs  "  and  "  buts  "  was  only  a  cover  for  his 
nervous  dread  of  committing  himself  to  something. 
His  attitude  on  this  question  is  throughout  charac- 
teristic. If  it  meant  anything,  it  would  be  a  com- 
plete justification  for  the  suspension  of  all  thought 
on  any  speculative  question.  To  say  that  one  would 
be  inclined  to  a  belief  if  only  the  Church  would  ap- 
prove it,  is  to  emasculate  one's  own  intelligence.  It 
could  not  help  things  to  say  that  the  Church  meant 
to  him  the  consent  of  all  Christian  people.  At  that 
moment  there  was  no  consent  of  all  Christian  people, 
and  the  only  conceivable  way  by  which  such  consent 
could  be  reached  was  by  a  full  and  free  comparison 
of  the  honest  views  of  honest  men,  in  order  that 
essentials  might  be  emphasised  and  non-essentials 
eliminated.  It  is  a  poor  defence  of  the  brightest 
and  clearest  mind  of  his  day,  to  say  that  he  refused 
to  take  his  manly  part  in  the  clearing  up  of  precisely 
those  speculative  questions  about  which  discussion 
must  necessarily  arise.  It  was  idle  for  him  to  talk 
about  avoiding  dissensions.  The  dissensions  were 
there,  and  the  real  question  was  not  how  to  sup- 
press them,  but  how  to  solve  them  so  that  right- 
minded  and  intelligent  men  could  know  where  they 
stood. 

The  worst  thorn  in  Erasmus*  side  on  this  question 


4i6  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

was  Conrad  Pelicanus,  one  of  the  reformed  preachers 
of  Basel.  The  chief  offence  of  Pelicanus  was  that 
he  had  sought  to  support  his  spiritual  view  of  the 
Eucharist  by  declaring  that  Erasmus  really  believed 
just  as  he  did.  We  have  three  letters  of  Erasmus 
to  him,  all  of  1526,  and  each  more  violent  than  the 
other.  Let  us  notice  only  the  most  decided  of  these 
expressions. 

**  It  is  my  way  when  I  am  with  learned  friends,  espec- 
ially when  there  are  present  none  of  the  weaker  sort,  to 
discourse  freely  on  all  kinds  of  subjects,  for  the  purpose 
of  making  inquiries,  sometimes  to  try  them  or  for  men- 
tal exercise,  and  perhaps  I  am  more  outspoken  in  this 
matter  than  I  ought  to  be.  But  I  will  confess  to  the 
charge  of  murder,  if  any  mortal  has  ever  heard  me  say  in 
jest  or  in  earnest  this  word  :  that  in  the  Eucharist  there 
is  merely  bread  and  wine  or  that  it  is  not  the  real  body  and 
blood  of  our  Lord  as  some  are  now  maintaining  in  their 
books.  Nay,  I  call  upon  Christ  himself  to  be  my  enemy, 
if  that  opinion  ever  found  a  lodgment  in  my  mind.  For 
if  ever  at  any  time  any  flighty  thoughts  have  touched  my 
mind  I  have  easily  thrown  them  off  by  considering  the 
measureless  love  of  God  to  me,  and  by  weighing  the 
words  of  Holy  Scripture,  which  have  compelled  even 
Luther,  whom  you  set  above  all  schools,  all  popes,  all 
men  of  sound  doctrine,  and  councils,  to  profess  what  the 
Catholic  Church  professes  though  he  is  wont  freely  to 
differ  from  her.     .     .     . 

"  If  I  should  confess  to  you  as  to  a  friend  debauchery 
or  theft,  how  utterly  against  all  laws  of  friendship  it 
would  be  if  you  were  to.babble  it  even  to  one  person,  to  the 
peril  of  your  friend.  Now,  when  you  are  scattering  abroad 
among  all  men  the  most  dreadful  of  all  charges,  of  things 


1527]  The  Eucharist  4^7 

which  my  tongue,  though  a  free  one,  has  never  uttered, 
nor  my  mind  ever  conceived,  how  can  you  be  forgiven 
for  what  you  are  doing,  my  Evangelical  friend  ?  Did 
you  think  to  abuse  the  authority  of  my  name  in  order  to 
enforce  a  belief  you  have  yourself  but  lately  begun  to 
hold  ?  I  pray  you,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  is  that  an 
Evangelical  thing,  to  make  so  dreadful  a  charge  against 
a  friend  in  order  to  drag  more  persons  into  a  new  sect, 
as  if  we  had  not  sects  enough  already  ?  If  your  doctrine 
is  a  truly  pious  one,  have  you  no  other  means  of  persuad- 
ing men  to  it  except  this  empty  statement,  that  Erasmus 
agrees  with  you  ?  But  if  my  opinion  is  worth  so  much 
to  you,  why  do  you  hold  it  of  no  account  on  the  many 
points  on  which  I  differ  from  you  ?      .     .     . 

"  If  you  are  convinced  that  in  the  Eucharist  there  is 
nothing  but  bread  and  wine,  I  would  rather  be  torn 
limb  from  limb  than  profess  what  you  profess  and  would 
rather  suffer  anything  than  depart  this  life  with  such  a 
crime  confessed  against  my  own  conscience.  ...  I 
will  suffer  you  to  babble  out  before  all  men  whatever  I 
have  said,  in  intimate  discourse,  sober  or  drunk,  in  jest 
or  in  earnest,  but  I  will  not  suffer  you  to  make  me  the 
author  or  the  supporter  of  that  dogma  ;  for  it  was  never 
either  on  my  tongue  or  in  my  heart." 

The  best  summary  of  the  view  he  wished  others 
to  take  of  his  own  opinions  on  this  point  is  found  in 
a  letter  to  his  former  pupil,  the  Polish  baron  John  k 
Lasco.' 

"  I  seem  to  read  between  the  lines  of  Luther's  writings, 
that  Pelicanus  has  given  him  some  hints  from  our  con- 


h 


>iii.',  917,  D-F. 
27 


41 8  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523- 

versations, — the  same  who  has  nearly  stirred  up  another 
disturbance  here.  He  had  spread  a  rumour  that  he  had 
the  same  opinions  on  the  Eucharist  as  I  had.  I  wrote 
him  a  letter  of  remonstrance,  but  without  giving  names. 
This  letter  of  [to  ?]  Pelicanus  was  shown  by  Berus  and 
Cantiuncula  to  a  few  persons,  was  even  read  in  the 
Council,  and  finally  was  translated  into  German  and 
spread  far  and  wide,  to  my  great  distress.  Pelicanus  re- 
plied by  letter.  I  wrote  him  to  stop  his  writing  and,  if 
he  wanted  anything  of  me,  to  come  to  me.  He  came. 
I  asked  the  man  what  he  meant  by  his  letters.  He  tried 
various  evasions,  but  when  I  pressed  him  he  finally  con- 
fessed that  he  had  said  he  believed  the  same  as  I. 
I  asked  him  what  then  he  did  believe  that  could  be  in 
agreement  with  me  ?  He  replied  after  many  attempts 
at  evasion  :  '  I  believe  that  in  the  Eucharist  are  the  body 
and  blood  of  the  Lord';  isn't  that  what  you  believe?' 
'  Assuredly,'  I  replied.  *  Do  you  believe  they  are  there 
by  way  of  a  symbol  ? '  *  No,'  he  said,  *  but  I  believe 
the  efficacy  (znrtutem)  of  Christ  is  present.'  I  went  on  : 
*  Don't  you  believe  that  the  substance  of  the  body  is 
present  ? '  He  confessed  that  he  did  not  believe  it. 
After  that  I  asked  him  if  he  had  ever  professed  this 
opinion  in  my  presence.  He  confessed  what  is  the 
truth,  that  he  had  never  done  so.  Then  I  demanded 
whether  he  had  ever  heard  this  opinion  from  me.  He 
said  he  had  never  heard  it  and,  what  was  more,  he  had 
often  heard  the  opposite.  I  continued  :  '  You  pretend 
to  others  that  I  agree  with  you,  and  when  you  say  this, 
you  understand  in  your  own  mind  that  you  agree  with 
me  so  far  as  to  believe  that  the  body  of  the  Lord  is 
present  ;  while  those  who  hear  you  understand  that  I 
agree  with  you  in  accepting  the  opinion  of  CEcolam- 
padius.' " 


1527]  The  Eucharist  4^9 

The  more  Erasmus  protested,  the  less  could  he 
convince  the  advanced  reformers  that  he  did  not  in 
his  heart  agree  with  them.  His  fate  was  that  of  any 
man  who  tries  to  shift  and  shuffle  in  a  crisis  when 
honest  men  are  forming  their  opinions  and  are 
grouping  themselves  accordingly.  He  was  left  out- 
side all  the  groups,  and  could  not  even  persuade  the 
one  all-embracing,  ever  hospitable  Church  that  he 
belonged  heartily  within  her  fold. 


\ 


CHAPTER  XI 

FAMILIAR  COLLOQUIES — NEW  TESTAMENT  PARA- 
PHRASES —  CONTROVERSIAL  AND  DIDACTIC 
WRITINGS — REMOVAL  TO  FREIBURG — LAST  RE- 
FORMATORY TREATISES — RETURN  TO  BASEL — 
DEATH 

1523-1536 

WITH  all  Erasmus'  anxiety  to  demonstrate  in 
words  his  entire  independence  of  the  rapidly 
organising  reform  parties  and  his  unswerving  loyalty 
to  the  papacy,  his  action  during  these  critical  years 
was  as  far  as  possible  from  timidity  or  half-hearted- 
ness.  Of  this  no  better  proof  can  be  given  than  the 
repeated  editions  of  his  Familiar  Colloquies.  The 
Colloquies,  like  the  Adages,  have  a  history  of  their 
own.  They  were  begun,  probably,  as  early  as  the 
residence  of  Erasmus  in  Paris,'  about  the  year  1500, 
and  consisted  at  first  of  brief  conversations  on 
familiar  subjects,  arranged  for  the  use  of  beginners 
in  Latin. 

As  years  went  on,  these  early  experiments  were 
extended,  partly  by  expansion,  partly  by  addition. 

'  Adalbert  Horawitz,  Ueber  die  Colloquia  des  Erasmus  von  Rotter- 
dam ;  in  Raumer's  Historisches  Taschenbuch,  1887,  pp.  53-121. 

420 


1523]  Familiar  Colloquies  421 

In  1523-24  appeared  an  edition,  practically  com- 
plete, with  a  charming  little  dedication  to  the 
author's  namesake,  John  Erasmius  Froben,  the 
eight-year-old  son  of  the  publisher.  This  dedica- 
tion, we  have  a  right  to  believe,  represents  fairly  the 
serious  thought  of  Erasmus  as  to  the  real  meaning 
and  purpose  of  his  book.' 

The  Colloquies  were  written  to  instruct  by  amus- 
ing^ They  touch  upon  every  class  of  society  and 
upon  every  vice  and  weakness  of  human  nature. 
Some  are  sparkling  with  humour,  some  are  too 
plainly  didactic  to  be  very  amusing,  and  some, 
especially  the  later  ones,  are  downright  dull.  As 
in  the  Praise  of  Folly,  the  sermon  is  heard  through 
all  the  rush  of  words  and  no  one  of  these  tales  is 
quite  without  its  moral  lesson.  The  subjects  most 
welcome  to  Erasmus'  satire  are  of  course  the  ex- 
travagances of  monks  and  schoolmen  and  the  super- 
stitions of  religion.  We  have  already  quoted  freely 
from  some  of  the  more  important  for  the  knowledge 
of  the  writer's  own  life.  A  brief  survey  of  one  or 
two  of  the  more  widely  popular  will  indicate  the 
great  range  of  interest  and  the  keen  human  desire 
which  commended  them  to  so  large  a  circle  of 
readers. 

In  The  Abbot  and  the  Learned  Lady  we  have 
one  of  several  proofs  that  Erasmus  regarded  the 
education  of  women  as  desirable  and  profitable 
to  the  community.  The  abbot  reproves  the  lady 
because  he  finds  Latin  books  in  her  chamber.  French 
or  German  he  could  bear  with,  but  not  Latin. 

•  i.,  627. 


422  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1523 

^' Abbot.  '  I  have  sixty- two  monks  at  home,  but  you 
will  never  find  a  book  in  my  chamber.'  Magdalia. 
'  That  's  a  fine  lookout  for  your  monks.'  Ab.  '  I  can 
stand  books,  but  not  Latin  ones. '  Mag.  '  Why  so  ? ' 
Ab.  'Because  that  tongue  is  not  suited  to  women.' 
Mag.  '  I  should  like  to  know  why.'  Ab.  '  Because  it 
is  far  from  helpful  in^ maintaining  their  purity.'  Mag. 
'  Do  those  French  books,  then,  full  of  idle  tales,  make 
for  purity  ? '  Ab.  '  Then  there  is  another  thing.'  Mag. 
'  Well,  out  with  it,  whatever  it  is.'  Ab.  '  They  are  safer 
from  the  priests  if  they  know  no  Latin.'  Mag.  '  Oh! 
but  there  is  least  danger  of  all  from  that  quarter  ac- 
cording to  your  practice,  for  you  do  all  you  can  to  keep 
from  knowing  Latin.'  Ab.  '  People  in  general  are  of 
my  mind  because  it  is  such  a  rare  and  unusual  thing  for 
a  woman  to  know  Latin.'  Mag.  '  Don't  talk  to  me  of 
the  people,  the  very  worst  source  of  good  actions — nor 
of  custom,  the  mistress  of  all  evils.  Let  us  accustom 
ourselves  to  what  is  good,  then  what  was  formerly  un- 
usual will  become  usual,  what  was  rude  will  become 
polished,  and  what  was  unbecoming  will  grow  to  be 
fitting.'  .  .  .  Mag.  'What  think' you  of  the  Virgin 
Mother?'  Ab.  'Most  highly.'  Mag.  'Was  she  not 
versed  in  books  ? '  Ab.  '  Quite  so,  but  not  in  these 
books.'  Mag.  'What,  then,  did  she  use  to  read?' 
Ab.  '  The  Canonical  Hours.'  Mag.  '  According  to  what 
form  ? '     Ab.   '  That  of  the  Benedictine  order.'  " 

The  Youth  and  the  Harlot  brings  us  to  per- 
haps the  best  illustration  of  that  freedom  of  language 
which  was  the  most  common  charge  against  the  Col- 
loquies. The  argument  is  one  employed  previously 
by  the  Saxon  nun  Roswitha  in  the  tenth  century  in 
her  comedy  Paphnutius.     An  edition  of  Roswitha 


1523]  Familiar  Colloquies  423 

had  been  published  at  Nuremberg  in  1501,  so  that 
Erasmus  may  well  have  taken  his  model  at  first- 
hand. The  conversation  is  of  the  slipperiest,  and 
yet  the  impression  conveyed  is  not  that  of  immoral 
or  even  of  unmoral  writing.  It  is  simply  the  bald- 
est "  realism"  of  treatment,  and  the  issue  is  dis- 
tinctly a  moral  one.  As  in  Roswitha  the  erring 
woman  is  won  to  virtue  by  the  Christian  faith,  so 
here  she  is  reformed  by  arguments  of  a  more  pract- 
ical sort.  The  dig  at  the  monks  is  not  lacking.  The 
youth  has  been  on  a  journey  to  Rome : 

"  Sophronius.  '  I  journeyed  with  an  honest  man  and 
by  his  advice  I  took  with  me  not  a  bottle  but  a  book, 
the  New  Testament  translated  by  Erasmus.'  Lucretia. 
'  Erasmus!  why  they  say  he  is  a  heretic  and  a  half!  ' 
SopA.  '  Has  his  name  got  into  this  place  too  ? '  Zuc.  '  No 
one  is  better  known  here.'  Sop/i.  '  Have  you  ever  seen 
him  ? '  Luc.  '  Never;  but  I  should  like  to  see  him.  I 
have  heard  so  many  bad  things  about  him.'  Scp/t.  '  From 
bad  men,  I  dare  say.'  Zuc.  '  Oh,  no!  from  most  rev- 
erend men.'  SopA.  'Who  are  they?'  Zuc.  'Oh!  it 
won't  do  to  say.'  Sop/i.  'Why  not?'  Zuc.  'Because 
if  you  should  blab  and  they  should  hear  it,  I  should 
lose  a  great  part  of  my  gains.'  SopA.  '  Don't  be 
afraid.  I  am  mum  as  a  stone.'  Zuc.  *  Put  down  your 
ear.'  SopA.  '  Stupid!  Why  need  we  whisper  when  we 
are  alone  ?  Does  n't  God  hear  us  ?  .  .  .  Well,  by 
the  eternal  God!  you  are  a  pious  harlot  to  help  along 
Mendicants  by  your  charity!  '  " 

The  Colloquies  became  the  especial  object  of 
attack  from  all  who  cared  to  assail  the  reputation 
of  Erasmus.     Typical  was  the  action  of  the  Paris 


424  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1529 

theological  tribunal,  the  Sorbonne,  which  in  1526 
condemned  the  book  as  dangerous  to  the  morals  of 
the  young,  and  worse  still  as  containing  the  same 
errors  as  the  works  of  Arius,  Wiclif,  the  Walden- 
sians,  and  Luther.  In  presenting  their  case  to  the 
supreme  court,  the  "  Parlement  "  of  Paris,  for  its 
action,  the  theologians  of  the  Sorbonne  review 
the  steps  already  taken  by  the  spiritual  authorities 
toward  the  suppression  of  the  Colloquies.  They 
had  done  what  they  could,  but  now  demand  the  aid 
of  the  temporal  powers.  King  Francis  I.  appears 
to  have  opposed  the  action  of  the  Parlement,  and  it 
was  not  until  1528  that  the  University  as  a  body 
condemned  the  book  and  forbade  its  students  to 
read  it. 

Equally  unfavourable  was  Luther's  judgment  of 
the  Colloquies.  In  his  Table-Talk  he  refers  fre- 
quently to  them  as  the  most  offensive  to  him  of  all 
Erasmus'  writings.' 

"  If  I  die  I  will  forbid  my  children  to  read  his  Col- 
loquies, for  he  says  and  teaches  there  many  a  godless 
thing,  under  fictitious  names,  with  intent  to  assault  the 
Church  and  the  Christian  faith.  He  may  laugh  and 
make  fun  of  me  and  of  other  men,  but  let  him  not  make 
fun  of  our  Lord  God! 

"  See  now  what  poison  he  scatters  in  his  Colloquies 
among  his  made-up  people,  and  goes  craftily  at  our 
youth  to  poison  them," 

Another  product  of  the  years  of  greatest  party 
stress  were  the  Latin  Paraphrases  of  the  New  Testa- 

'  Luther's  Werke,  ed.  Walch,  xxii.,  1612-1630. 


z/?i. 


Bi.avia:na.  mt>c  xcni- 


TITLE-PAGE  TO  THE  "COLLOQUIES  OF  ERASMUS," 
PUBLISHED  AT  AMSTERDAM,  1693. 

PORTRAIT   OF    ERASMUS    AND    OTHERS. 


i5i6]      New  Testament  Paraphrases      425 

ment  books.  No  one  of  the  serious  works  of  Eras- 
mus was  so  widely  influential  as  this.  Erasmus 
began  his  work  on  them  immediately  after  the  first 
publication  of  the  New  Testament  in  15 16,  and  con- 
tinued it  at  intervals  during  the  next  seven  or  eight 
years.  The  timeliness  of  the  Paraphrases  is  shown 
by  their  immediate  translation  into  the  common 
tongues.  Erasmus  himself  says  that  they  brought 
him  very  little  odium,  but  abundant  thanks.  In  a 
preface  addressed  to  the  "  Pious  Reader"*  he 
makes  an  ample  and  admirable  defence  of  bringing 
the  Bible  to  the  people  both  in  the  form  of  para- 
phrases and  of  translations.  "  I  greatly  differ,"  he 
says,  "  from  those  who  maintain  that  the  laity  and 
the  unlearned  should  be  kept  from  the  reading  of 
the  sacred  volumes,  and  that  none  should  be  ad- 
mitted to  these  mysteries  except  the  few  who  have 
spent  years  over  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle  and 
the  theology  of  the  schools." 

There  are  two  ways  to  this  end  :  either  all  men 
must  learn  "  the  three  tongues,"  or  else  the  Script- 
ures must  be  translated.  Erasmus  makes  the  some- 
what startling  suggestion  that,  as  the  energy  of  the 
Roman  princes  had  compelled  all  the  world  to  speak 
Greek  and  Latin,  merely  to  maintain  their  temporal 
Empire,  it  was  quite  within  the  bounds  of  possibility 
for  the  princes  of  Christendom  to  compel  all  men  to 
learn  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin  that  the  eternal 
kingdom  of  Christ  might  be  spread  over  the  whole 
earth.  However,  he  realises  that  this  is  not  likely 
to  happen  very  soon  and  meanwhile  will  be  con- 

'  vii.,  ad  init. 


426  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1516- 

tent  if  each  may  know  the  Scripture  in  his  own 
tongue : 

"  if  the  farmer,  as  he  holds  the  plough,  shall  sing  to 
himself  something  from  the  Psalms;  if  the  weaver,  sitting 
at  his  web,  shall  lighten  his  toil  with  a  passage  from  the 
Gospels.  Let  the  sailor,  as  he  holds  the  rudder,  repeat 
a  Scripture  verse,  and  as  the  mother  plies  the  distaff,  let 
a  friend  or  relative  read  aloud  from  the  sacred  volume." 

Our  limits  forbid  us  to  go  in  detail  into  the  several 
long  and  bitter  controversies  in  which  Erasmus 
found  himself  engaged  with  the  defenders  of  the 
ancient  faith.  They  begin  with  the  publication  of 
his  New  Testament  and  continue  for  twenty  years 
with  little  interruption.  They  were  without  excep- 
tion undertaken  by  unofficial  persons,  representing 
the  governing  powers  of  neither  Church  nor  State. 
It  was  Erasmus'  constant  boast  that  all  the  really 
important  elements  of  European  life  were  on  his 
side  and  that  the  attacks  upon  him  were  only  so 
many  reflections  upon  the  highest  authorities  them- 
selves. There  is  truth  enough  in  this  boast  to  make 
it  evident  that  these  controversies  were  a  private 
matter  between  himself  and  his  immediate  oppon- 
ents; but  it  was  plain  also  that  at  any  critical  mo- 
ment the  powers  that  were  might  be  enlisted  against 
him. 

The  charges  which  caused  him  most  anxiety  may 
be  reduced  to  two.  First,  the  accusation  of  scholarly 
inaccuracy,  and  second,  the  far  more  difficult  and 
wide-reaching  accusation  of  heresy  with  all  its  mul- 
titudinous meanings.     As  to  the  former  charge  of 


1536]       Controversial  and  Didactic       427 

inaccurate  scholarship,  Erasmus  had  two  forms  of 
defence.  Sometimes  he  admitted  it  and  sought  to 
explain  it  away  by  alleging  hasty  work  and  defend- 
ing himself  by  readiness  to  accept  correction  and  to 
prepare  new  editions  of  the  faulty  texts.  He  liked 
to  represent  himself  as  a  pioneer,  breaking  the  way 
for  others  more  learned  than  himself  and,  he  would 
venture  to  hope,  stimulated  to  better  things  by  his 
example.  Or,  again,  he  would  deny  the  truth  of  the 
criticism  and  would  then  proceed  to  demonstrate  at 
great  length  and,  with  all  the  amenities  common  to 
literary  controversy  in  his  day,  to  demolish  the  con- 
tentions of  his  opponent.  In  these  discussions  of 
purely  literary  and  scholarly  themes,  where  his  an- 
tagonists were  really  men  of  some  consideration,  he 
kept  his  argument  in  the  main  to  a  reasonably  high 
standard.  Where,  however,  they  seemed  to  him 
men  of  small  account  he  descends  to  unmeasured 
personal  abuse. 

In  the  other  kind  of  controversy  called  out  by  his 
attacks  upon  ignorant  and  vulgar  superstitions  or 
upon  the  excesses  of  clerical  abuse,  his  method  was 
somewhat  different.  Here  he  was  always  ready  to 
repay  slander  by  slander,  to  exaggerate  the  personal 
element  both  in  attack  and  defence,  and  especially  to 
insist  that  he  was  absolutely  sound  in  his  doctrinal 
beliefs.  To  the  former  class  of  controversies  belong 
notably  that  with  Edward  Lee,  later  archbishop  of 
York,  called  out  by  the  early  edition  of  the  New 
Testament,  that  with  Budreus,  which  was  a  liberal 
give-and-take  of  sharp  criticism  on  purely  literary 
matters,  and  that  with  the  Spaniard  Stunica.     To 


428  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1516- 

the  latter  class  belong  such  wranglings  as  his  deal- 
ings with  Natalis  Bedda  of  Paris,  Nicholas  Egmund 
of  Louvain,  and  Gerhardt  of  Nymwegen,  the  re- 
formed preacher  of  Strassburg. 

This  controversial  literature  gives  us  but  little 
insight  into  the  real  thought  of  Erasmus.  Its 
value  for  us  is  only  in  furnishing  us  with  evidence 
of  his  astonishing  cleverness  in  winding  his  way  out 
of  difficulties  and  his  immense  command  of  the  lan- 
guage of  vituperation.  Its  study  leaves  one  with 
an  unpleasant  sense  of  powers  diverted  for  the  time 
from  their  most  profitable  exercise  into  issues  which 
did  not  tell  with  any  great  effect  upon  the  final  result 
of  the  scholar's  life. 

The  anxiety  of  Erasmus  as  to  the  reception  of 
his  works  begins  to  show  itself  from  about  the  year 
1 526  in  his  dealing  with  the  person  and  the  probable 
fate  of  Louis  de  Berquin.  The  story  of  this  first 
martyr  to  the  reformed  faith  in  France  reflects  better 
than  any  other  episode  the  course  of  events  and 
ideas  in  the  early  stages  of  the  reformatory  move- 
ment there.  Berquin  was  a  gentleman  of  Artois,  a 
man  of  liberal  education,  serious  in  his  character, 
and  moved  from  the  start  to  apply  his  learning  to 
the  remedy  of  obvious  abuses  in  the  clerical  life. 
Through  Leffevre  he  was  led  to  the  study  of  the 
Lutheran  leaders  and  became  convinced  that  here 
he  had  found  the  true  way  to  liberty  and  recovery 
from  the  low  condition  of  the  dominant  religion. 
Like  Erasmus  he  attacked  principally  those  errors 
and  abuses  which  seemed  to  rest  mainly  upon  ignor- 
ance and  superstition  in  those  to  whom  the  world  had 


1536]       Controversial  and  Didactic       429 

a  right  to  look  for  learning  and  enlightenment.  The 
scholars  of  the  Sorbonne,  the  heads  of  the  French 
ecclesiastical  fabric  and  the  leaders  of  French  mon- 
asticism,  were  at  once  alarmed.  They  began,  early 
in  the  movement  of  the  reform,  to  bring  every  pos- 
sible pressure  upon  the  young,  enlightened,  and 
would-be  liberal  king  to  act  promptly  and  with  de- 
cision against  these  first  threatening  demonstrations 
of  what  they  were  ready  instantly  to  stamp  as  **  her- 
esy." For  six  years,  from  1523  to  1529,  Berquin 
was  subjected  to  one  stage  after  another  of  a  perse- 
cution which  he  was  too  brave  to  avoid.  His  chief 
offence  in  the  eyes  of  his  theological  persecutors  was 
that  he  had  studied  and  translated  into  French,  with 
"  blasphemous  "  commentaries,  several  of  the  most 
dangerous  writings  of  Erasmus  and  other  alleged 
leaders  of  sedition.  Twice  arrested  and  imprisoned, 
he  was  twice  released  by  the  special  order  of  the 
king,  who  seems  to  have  taken  his  case  very  much 
to  heart.  Meanwhile  were  occurring  that  series  of 
unhappy  events, — the  Italian  campaign  of  1525,  the 
capture  of  Francis  I.,  the  treaty  of  Madrid,  and 
the  negotiations  following  it, — which  were  driving 
the  king  inevitably  into  the  hands  of  the  French 
clerical  party.  To  save  his  kingdom  and  his 
"  honour"  he  was  forced  to  make  sacrifices,  and  a 
ready  victim  was  found  in  this  man,  who  had  defied 
the  powers  which  were  now  clamouring  for  a  royal 
edict  of  persecution.  The  king  withdrew  his  pro- 
tection and  Berquin  died  upon  the  scaffold  on  the 
17th  of  April,  1529. 
The  relations  of  Erasmus  with  Berquin  began  by 


430  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1516- 

a  letter  from  the  latter  written  in  1526  and  express- 
ing the  greatest  admiration  for  the  learning  and  serv- 
ices to  true  religion  of  the  man  to  whom  he  looked 
up  as  his  chief  example.  He  assures  Erasmus  that 
the  main  object  in  persecuting  him  had  been  to 
throw  suspicion  upon  Erasmus*  own  works;  but 
that  he  had  assured  his  judges  that  if  anything  in 
these  works  seemed  contrary  to  the  faith  it  was  the 
result  of  misunderstanding  or  perversion  of  the 
original  text.  He  exhorts  Erasmus  to  write,  not 
casually,  as  he  has  already  done  to  Bedda,  but  at 
length,  with  arguments  and  with  the  authorities 
from  Scripture,  to  refute  these  calumnies. 

This  letter  of  Berquin  '  is  a  noble  and  touching 
appeal.  Not  a  word  of  complaint  or  of  fear  for  him- 
self, though  he  had  just  for  the  second  time  barely 
escaped  from  the  clutches  of  enemies  who  were  de- 
termined to  destroy  him.  He  appeals  to  Erasmus, 
not  in  his  own  behalf,  but  in  behalf  of  that  truth 
which  he  found  above  all  in  the  writings  of  the  man 
he  was  glad  to  call  his  master. 

The  reply  *  was  as  brief  and  cold  as  could  well  be. 

"  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  are  acting  with  the  best  of 
intentions,  most  learned  Berquin,  but  meanwhile  you  are 
bringing  upon  me,  who  am  too  heavily  burdened  already, 
a  weight  of  odium  by  translating  my  books  into  the  com- 
mon tongue  and  bringing  them  to  the  knowledge  of 
theologians." 

Two  later  letters'  have  the  same  tone  of  petulant 


iii.*,  1713-F.  *iii.',  884.  'iii.',  I132,  I133. 


1536]       Controversial  and  Didactic       431 

self-interest  and  cold  indifference  to  the  fate  which 
he  predicts  if  Berquin  does  not  moderate  his  attacks. 
After  Berquin's  death  he  wrote  to  Pirkheimer,' 
giving  an  account  of  the  affair  as  he  had  heard  it, 
and  added : 

"  If  he  deserved  this,  I  am  sorry;  if  he  did  not  deserve 
it,  I  am  doubly  sorry.  The  real  facts  in  the  case  are  not 
quite  clear  to  me.  I  had  no  acquaintance  with  Berquin, 
except  from  his  writings  and  from  the  reports  of  several 
persons.  ...  I  always  feared  that  things  would  end 
with  him  as  they  have,  and  I  never  wrote  to  him  except 
to  urge  upon  him  to  cease  from  contentions  which  could 
only  have  an  evil  end." 

The  same  story  is  repeated,  with  more  detail,  in 
a  letter  to  Utenhoven.* 

In  these  letters  there  is  not  a  word  of  real  sym- 
pathy with  the  fate  of  a  man  whose  worst  fault  was 
the  publication  of  Erasmus'  own  writings!  Not  a 
word  of  honest  admiration  for  his  courage — only 
a  grudging  admission  that  he  was  an  honest  fellow, 
but  really  too  obstinately  determined  upon  ruining 
himself!  Worst  of  all  is  the  shabby  pretence  that 
Erasmus  had  not  really  looked  into  the  case  of  Ber- 
quin and  after  all  was  not  quite  sure  whether  he  had 


'iii.«,  1189-F. 

'  iii.',  1206.  We  are  fairly  well  informed  as  to  Berquin  through 
French  sources,  quoted,  for  example,  by  H.  M.  Baird,  History  of 
the  Rise  of  the  Huguenots  of  France,  1879,  i.,  130.  The  account  of 
Erasmus  agrees  strikingly  with  these  other  sources,  but  it  seems  a 
little  too  much  to  reproduce  it  with  all  its  literary  decoration  as  a 
history  of  Berquin's  trial,  as  is  done  by  Mr.  Drummond  and  in  Haag, 
France  Frotestante,  s.  v. 


432  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1516- 

deserved  his  punishment  or  not.  Of  all  the  triumphs 
of  the  Erasmian  "  If,"  none  is  more  complete  or 
more  significant  than  this. 

For  several  years,  from  about  1523  on,  Erasmus 
had  been  engaged  in  personal  controversy  with  in- 
dividual theologians  at  Paris;  but  it  was  not  until 
1525  that  the  Sorbonne  Faculty  as  a  body  was 
brought  to  act  in  the  premises.  A  decree  of  that 
year  condemned  certain  passages  in  the  translations 
of  several  of  Erasmus'  books.  In  1526  another 
attack  was  made  especially  against  the  Familiar  Col- 
loquies and  the  Paraphrases  of  the  New  Testament. 
The  former  were  definitely  prohibited  to  students 
who  were  candidates  for  degrees.  The  decree  of 
the  Faculty  was  arranged  under  thirty-two  headings, 
each  concerning  some  special  point  of  alleged  diverg- 
ence from  the  true  teaching  of  the  Church.  In  his 
reply,'  published  in  1529,  Erasmus  takes  up  these 
points  one  by  one  and  fills  over  seventy  printed 
folio  pages  with  specific  answers.  As  to  the  style 
of  his  defence  we  are  prepared  to  anticipate  it.  His 
method  is  precisely  that  of  Berquin, — to  declare 
that  he  is  true  to  the  real  doctrine  of  the  Fathers 
and  that  his  critics — not,  of  course,  the  learned 
Faculty  itself — are  those  who  are  in  error.  How 
these  charges  can  really  come  from  the  Faculty  as  a 
whole  he  cannot  comprehend,  but  he  proposes  to 
appeal  from  the  Faculty  asleep  to  the  Faculty  awake. 
He  has  made  errors:  to  err  is  human.  But  why 
condemn  as  error  in  him  what  the  greatest  lights  of 

'  Desiderii  Erasmi  Declarationes  ad  Censuras  Lutetiae,  etc.,  /AT., 
813-954. 


1536]       Controversial  and  Didactic 


hJJ 


the  Church  have  said  without  reproof  ?  When 
Augustine  is  praising  virginity  he  goes  a  Httle  far  in 
dispraise  of  marriage;  is  it  strange  if  Erasmus  in 
defending  marriage  has  seemed  to  have  too  little 
respect  for  virginity  ? 

We  are  not  for  a  moment  to  suppose  that  the  real 
audience  to  which  this  reply  was  addressed  was  the 
Faculty  of  Paris  asleep  or  awake ;  it  was  the  reading 
world.  A  more  splendid  advertisement  for  the  Col- 
loquies than  this  theological  prosecution  could  hardly 
be  imagined.  Erasmus  says '  that  a  certain  Parisian 
publisher,  upon  the  rumour,  "  perhaps  started  by 
the  publisher  himself,"  that  the  Colloquies  were 
about  to  be  condemned,  got  out  an  elegant  handy 
edition  of  twenty-four  thousand,  and  that  it  was  at 
once  in  everyone's  hands. 

In  England,  where  Erasmus  might  have  expected 
to  find  his  best  defenders  and  his  most  sympathetic 
readers,  the  Colloquies  were  condemned  in  the  same 
year  (1526)  as  at  Paris. 

A  work  which  brought  much  later  reproach  upon 
its  author  was  the  Institution  of  Christian  Marriage, 
written  in  1526  and  dedicated  to  Queen  Katherine 
of  England.  Our  interest  in  it  is  in  the  bearing 
upon  marriage  of  the  changes  in  public  sentiment 
wrought  by  the  Reformation  ;  and  especially  in  that 
whole  great  problem,  of  the  relation  between  mar- 
riage as  the  foundation  of  human  society  and  the 
whole  monastic  and  priestly  limitation  of  it.  Eras- 
mus reaches  this  point  after  a  long  and  systematic 
review  of  the  canonical  regulations  as  to  marriage. 


'iii.»,  1168-D. 


434  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1516- 

He  examines  first  the  evil  effect  upon  society  of  the 
entrance  into  the  monastic  life  of  persons  already 
under  the  obligations  of  marriage,  a  thing  which  he 
says  was  never  favoured  even  in  times  most  kindly 
disposed  towards  monasticism  itself  unless  with  full 
consent  of  the  other  party.'  That  Erasmus  had  not 
entire  confidence  even  in  the  supervision  of  marriage 
by  the  most  responsible  ecclesiastical  authorities  is 
shown  by  a  striking  passage  *  in  which  he  fore- 
shadows the  principle  of  civil  marriage : 

"  It  would  in  great  measure  do  away  with  the  contro- 
versies that  spring  from  words  present  and  future,  from 
marriage  celebrated  and  marriage  consummated,  from 
signs,  nods,  and  writings,  if  the  heads  of  the  Church 
would  deign  to  decree  that  no  marriage  should  be  con- 
sidered complete  {ratum)  until  each  party,  before  special 
magistrates  and  witnesses,  in  clear  words,  soberly  and 
freely,  shall  declare  his  marriage  to  the  other  party,  and 
that  these  words  should  be  preserved  in  writing." 

The  great  body  of  the  essay  is  taken  up  with  admir- 
able injunctions  as  to  the  conduct  of  married  life 
and  the  education  of  children.  Erasmus  avoids 
here  any  consideration  of  what  was  becoming  one 
of  the  burning  questions  of  the  day,  the  right  of 
**  reformed  "  monks  or  priests  to  enter  into  lawful 
marriage,  but  returns  at  the  very  close  to  the  rela- 
tion between  marriage  and  the  clerical  life.  The 
burden  of  his  thought  here  is  the  duty  of  parents 
and  all  concerned  to  make  sure  that  the  youth 
proposing   either   to   take  orders  or  to  become  a 

'v.,  646-D.  «v.,  651.F. 


1536]       Controversial  and  Didactic       435 

monk  shall  be  quite  clear  as  to  his  calling  and  per- 
fectly free  to  follow  it  or  not.'  Throughout  this 
very  attractive  dissertation  there  is  a  noticeable 
calmness  of  style,  joined,  however,  with  entire  clear- 
ness and  decision  upon  the  essential  points.  It  is 
one  of  the  best  illustrations  of  Erasmus'  life-long 
insistance  upon  the  higher  value  of  the  life  of  nature 
as  compared  with  any  life  of  mere  formalism. 

That  Erasmus'  silence  on  the  question  of  clerical 
marriage  was  not  due  to  lack  of  thought  on  the  sub- 
ject is  clear  from  a  letter  to  C.  Hedio,  Lutheran 
preacher  at  Strassburg  in  1524,  two  years  before 
the  treatise  on  Christian  Marriage.' 

"  And  yet  before  all  '  Papists  ' — as  these  people  call 
them — I  have  always  freely  declared  that  marriage  should 
not  be  denied  to  priests  who  shall  be  ordained  in  future, 
if  they  cannot  be  continent,  and  I  would  say  nothing  else 
to  the  pope  himself;  not  because  I  do  not  prefer  con- 
tinence, but  because  I  find  scarcely  a  man  who  preserves 
his  continence.  Meanwhile  what  use  is  there  of  such  a 
swarm  of  priests  ?  I  never  persuaded  anyone  to  mar- 
riage ;  but  neither  did  I  ever  stand  in  the  way  of  anyone 
who  wished  to  marry." 

Erasmus  recognises  the  need  of  reform  in  every 
detail;  he  professes  agreement  with  every  view  of 
the  reformers,  but  he  will  not  advocate  any  specific 
action,  because  it  will  open  up  some  new  outlet  for 
human  frailty.  To  follow  him  would  be  to  con- 
demn the  world,  once  for  all,  to  hopeless  inactivity, 
simply  because  the  world's  business  must  be  done 
by  finite  human  beings. 

»v.,  724-A  *  iii.»,  845-E. 


43^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [151&- 

One  naturally  compares  with  this  elaborate  de- 
fence of  natural  and  wise  living,  in  the  Christian 
Marriage,  another  treatise  also  written  two  years 
earlier,  dedicated  to  the  sisters  of  a  nunnery  near 
Cologne  and  called  A  Comparison  of  the  Virgin 
and  the  Martyr.'  The  good  ladies,  it  seems,  had 
frequently  sent  Erasmus  presents  of  confectionery 
and  had  begged  him  to  write  something  for  them, — a 
very  pious  desire,  he  says,  but  a  poor  choice  of  a 
man.  He  only  wishes  that  he  could  find  in  the 
fragrant  stories  of  Holy  Writ  something  to  refresh 
their  minds  as  their  little  gifts  have  refreshed  his 
body.  So  he  runs  on  with  a  page  or  two  of  pretty 
fancies  about  virginity  and  then,  in  equally  fanciful 
strain,  about  martyrdom.  On  the  whole,  virginity 
has  the  advantage. 

Comparing  the  spouse  of  Christ  with  the  spouse 
of  a  mortal  husband,  Erasmus  dilates  upon  the  vast 
superiority  of  the  virgin  state.  If  one  is  not  willing 
to  believe  this  from  the  evidence  of  learned  men, 
let  her 

"  call  as  a  witness  any  one  of  those  who  are  happily 
enough  married  and  ask  her  to  tell  the  true  history  of 
her  marriage.  You  will  hear  things  that  will  make  you 
quite  satisfied  with  your  own  way  of  life.  Then  just 
put  before  yourself  the  example  of  those  who  have  mar- 
ried unhappily,  of  whom  there  is  a  vast  multitude,  and 
think  that  what  has  happened  to  them  might  have  hap- 
pened to  you.     .     .     ." 

This  was  written  at  the  very  time  at  which  Eras- 


'  Virginis  et  Martyris  Comparatio,  v.,  589-600. 


1536]       Controversial  and  Didactic       437 

mus  was  giving  to  the  world  the  completed  text  of 
his  Colloquies !  How  shall  we  explain  these  appar- 
ent contradictions  ?  Precisely  as  we  have  explained 
the  account  of  the  monastic  life  in  the  De  Contemptu 
Mundi.^  Like  that  earlier  essay,  this  too  was  a 
piece  of  literary  display,  written,  not  to  rouse  oppos- 
ition, but  out  of  a  largely  conventional  impulse. 
We  need  not  question  for  a  moment  the  entire  sin- 
cerity of  Erasmus  in  this  kind  of  composition,  as  far 
as  it  went.  It  was  only  the  natural  instinct  of  the 
man  to  counterbalance  every  opinion  he  uttered  and 
every  effect  he  produced  by  putting  forth  something 
on  the  other  side  of  the  same  question — for  every 
question  has  two  sides.  There  were  doubtless 
purely  conducted  monasteries,  and  Erasmus  was 
bound  to  believe  that  the  pleasant  ladies  who  were 
kind  enough  to  feed  him  with  candy  were  examples 
to  their  kind.  To  suppose,  however,  that  the 
phrases  of  ecstatic  spiritual  joy  here  offered  came 
from  very  deep  down  in  his  heart  of  hearts  would 
place  the  spirit  of  Erasmus  in  closer  kinship  with 
Bernard  and  k  Kempis  than  we  should  quite  like  to 
put  it. 

During  precisely  these  years,  from  1522  to  1529, 
we  have  a  great  number  of  treatises,  generally  short, 
which  illustrate  this  more  devotional  and  spiritual 
phase  of  his  literary  activity.  A  characteristic 
specimen  is  the  Modus  Orandi  Deutn,  "On  the  True 
Way  of  Prayer,"  '  addressed  to  Gerome  h.  Lasco,  a 
Polish  baron  and  brother  of  the  better-known  John 
k   Lasco.     This   is   a  systematic    inquiry  into   the 

'  See  p.  20.  *  v.,  1099-1132. 


43^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1516- 

nature,  the  purpose,  and  the  limitations  of  Christian 
prayer.  It  examines  the  questions:  to  whom  we 
may  pray,  what  we  may  properly  pray  for,  and  how 
our  prayers  should  be  framed.  In  regard  to  the 
first  question,  Erasmus  discusses  with  great  skill 
some  of  the  most  delicate  problems  of  his  day.  He 
examines  authorities  on  both  sides  as  to  the  pro- 
priety of  prayers  to  Christ  and  concludes : 

"  After  diligently  searching  the  sacred  volumes,  and 
supported  by  the  authority  of  our  fathers,  I  do  not  hesit- 
ate to  call  the  Son  of  God  true  God  and  to  direct  ray 
prayers  to  him,  not  with  the  idea  that  the  Son  could  give 
what  the  Father  may  deny,  but  because  I  am  persuaded 
that  the  Son  wills  the  same  and  can  do  the  same  as  the 
Father  wills  and  can  do; — though  the  Father  is  author 
and  source  of  all  things." 

More  difficult  was  the  question  of  the  invocation 
of  saints.  Erasmus  works  his  way  up  to  a  conclusion 
by  a  series  of  carefully  prepared  stages.  True,  we 
ought  to  affirm  dogmatically  only  such  things  as  are 
plainly  declared  in  the  Holy  Scriptures;  but  we 
ought  to  respect  everything  that  has  been  handed 
down  with  the  approval  of  pious  men.  Now  we 
know  that  the  invocation  of  saints  was  practised  by 
very  early  orthodox  Christians,  therefore,  while  we 
cannot  say  that  it  is  a  necessary  article  of  faith,  we 
may  well  bear  with  it.  We  know  that  the  saints 
when  on  earth  were  called  upon  to  pray  for  other 
men ;  why  suppose  them  less  capable  of  praying  for 
us  now  that  they  dwell  with  God  in  heaven  ? 

As  to  the  proper  objects  of  prayer  Erasmus  makes 


1536]       Controversial  and  Didactic       439 

a  very  elaborate  analysis,'  but  brings  everything 
round  finally  to  the  standard  of  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
The  method  is  almost  scholastic  in  its  system  and 
its  logical  division,  but  it  is  eminently  sensible  and 
practical  in  its  content. 

"  We  should  pray  for  nothing  that  cannot  be  referred 
to  one  of  the  seven  divisions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Whatever  we  may  ask  for  which  pertains  to  the  glory 
of  God,  belongs  to  the  first  clause:  '  Hallowed  be  thy 
name.'  Whatever  refers  to  the  spread  and  realisation  of 
the  Gospel,  belongs  to  the  second:  '  Thy  kingdom 
come  ' ;  whatever  to  the  observance  of  the  divine  teach- 
ing, to  the  third:  '  Thy  will  be  done,'  "  and  so  on. 

To  illustrate  the  folly  of  absurd  distinctions  as  to 
which  divinities  might  attend  to  which  prayers,  he 
tells  a  story  of  a  certain  man  at  Louvain,  simple 
rather  than  impious,  who,  after  he  had  made  his  de- 
votions, used  to  run  about  among  the  various  altars, 
saluting  the  saints  for  whom  he  had  an  especial 
liking,  and  saying:  "  This  is  yours,  St.  Barbara," 
and  "  Take  this  to  yourself,  St.  Rochus,"  as  if  he 
feared  that  the  saints  would  fall  to  fighting  over  the 
special  prayers  belonging  to  each. 

A  very  modern,  almost  "  evangelical  "  touch  is 
found  in  a  chapter  on  extempore  prayer. 

"  It  would  be  very  desirable  if  the  whole  service  of 
religion,  hymns,  instruction,  and  prayer,  could  be  con- 
ducted in  the  language  of  the  people,  as  was  formerly 
the  case,  and  that  all  should  be  so  distinctly  and  clearly 

'  v.,  1122-F.  - 


440  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1529 

spoken  that  it  should  be  understood  by  all  present.  But 
there  are  many  things  in  life  rather  to  be  desired  than 
hoped  for.  It  is  to  be  wished  that  public  worship  should 
not  be  too  prolonged,  for  there  is  nothing  worse  than  a 
surplus  of  good  things,  and  that  it  should  be  the  same 
among  all  peoples  of  the  Christian  name.  Nowadays, 
what  diversities  in  almost  every  church!  nay,  what  pains 
have  been  taken  that  one  should  not  agree  with  the  other! 
With  what  tedious  chants  and  prayers  are  some  monks 
now  burdened,  and  with  what  joy  do  they  escape  from 
their  dreary  performance!  " 

We  have  here  an  almost  complete  survey  of  the 
outward  forms  of  the  religious  life  reduced  to  the 
simple  standard  of  Christian  common  sense.  As  a 
type  of  Erasmus'  activity  at  this  time  nothing  can 
serve  us  better.  He  was  fulfilling  his  mission  as  a 
preacher  of  simple  righteousness,  and  no  clamours  of 
criticism  on  the  one  side  or  the  other  of  the  great 
conflict  raging  about  him  could  drive  him  for  a  mo- 
ment from  his  fundamental  position.  He  watched 
all  the  stages  of  that  struggle  and  drew  out  of  the 
views  of  the  several  parties  the  text  for  his  continu- 
ous comment  upon  men  and  things.  He  held  him- 
self, as  he  said,  integer,  "  uncompromised,"  but  he 
shows  where  his  real  feeling  was.  The  ruling  order 
might  get  what  comfort  it  could  out  of  the  Modus 
Orandi  and  similar  treatises,  but  if  the  suggestions 
therein  contained  could  have  been  carried  out,  a 
something  very  like  the  Protestant  churches  would 
have  resulted.  The  authority  of  Scripture  as  the 
standard  of  religious  life;  the  Lord's  Prayer  as  the 
all-sufficient  test  of  the  forms  of  worship ;  the  laity 


1529]  Removal  to  Freiburg  441 

as  the  essential  element  of  the  Christian  community ; 
the  common  language  as  the  only  proper  medium 
of  communication  in  religious  matters ;  a  worship  of 
secondary  powers  so  enfeebled  by  the  limits  of  com- 
mon sense  that  it  would  surely  fall  away  of  itself — 
all  this  makes  a  programme  that  is  nothing  less  than 
Protestant  in  its  essence.  Stripped  of  its  academic 
decorations  and  its  elaborate  balancing  of  values, 
this  was  a  reforming  tract  of  the  first  importance. 

Of  course  Erasmus  used  all  the  trimming  portions, 
both  of  this  and  of  all  similar  writings,  to  demon- 
strate his  loyalty  to  tradition,  but  the  modern 
reader,  like  the  "  Lutheran  "  of  that  day,  must  see 
through  these  to  the  real  thought  beneath  and  must 
share  his  impatience  that  the  man  who  could  go  so 
far  could  not  be  brought  to  take  a  step  farther  and 
carry  out  these  suggestions — or  at  least  help  others 
to  carry  them  out — into  definite  constructive  action. 
The  reply  must  always  be  that  the  world  has  no 
right  to  demand  of  any  man  what  is  not  his  to  give. 

So  in  alternations  of  calm  religious  reflection  and 
composition  with  violent  controversial  encounters, 
of  painstaking  scholarly  editing  with  keenest  satir- 
ical writing,  the  residence  of  the  aging  scholar  at 
Basel  drew  to  its  end. 

In  the  year  1529  Erasmus  left  Basel  and  went  to 
Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau.  Why  he  left  Basel  and 
why  he  chose  Freiburg  as  his  residence  are  questions 
we  can  hardly  hope  to  answer  satisfactorily,  since 
they  involve  that  whole  very  difficult  subject  of  his 
personal  equation,  to  which  we  have  not  yet  dis- 


442  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1529 

covered  any  suflficient  key.  Perhaps  we  may  say 
this :  that  Basel  had  been  an  attractive  residence  for 
him  because  its  political  and  religious  condition  cor- 
responded pretty  accurately  to  his  own  state  of 
mind.  The  spirit  of  the  place  was  eminently  one 
of  toleration  and  good  feeling.  Even  the  violent 
doctrines  of  the  extreme  radical  party,  the  Ana- 
baptists and  all  their  kin,  were  heard  with  patience, 
but  were  held  in  check  and  not  allowed  to  influence 
public  action.  If  we  could  trust  the  extravagant 
eulogy  common  just  after  his  death  '  we  should  have 
to  think  of  Erasmus  living  at  Basel  as  a  kind  of  in- 
tellectual monarch,  to  whom 

'  *  there  came  not  alone  from  Spain  and  France,  but  from 
the  farthest  limits  of  the  whole  earth,  not  merely  men  of 
noble  birth  but  also  the  greatest  monarchs  of  the  world, 
popes,  emperors,  kings,  cardinals,  bishops,  archbishops, 
dukes,  chieftains,  barons,  and  countless  princes,  rulers, 
magnates,  and  governors  of  various  degree,  etc." 

This  is  obvious  nonsense;  but  we  gain  enough 
glimpses  at  his  manner  of  life  at  Basel  to  make  us 
sure  that  Erasmus  lived  there  in  honour,  with  every 
opportunity  for  congenial  work  and  for  association 
with  men  of  his  own  kind.  His  ordinary  habits  were 
those  of  a  sober  scholar  who  was  compelled  by  the 
natural  demands  of  his  profession  and  by  the  limit- 
ations of  feeble  health  to  keep  strictly  within  the 
limits  of  careful  and  quiet  living.  He  seems  to  have 
surrounded  himself  with  young  men,  table-boarders, 
who  came  to  him  as  the  adviser  of  their  studies. 


*i.,  ad  init,     Epitaphia  in  Laudem  Erasmi. 


1529]  Removal  to  Freiburg  443 

His  relation  to  them  is  very  prettily  sketched  in  a 
letter '  to  a  young  Frisian,  one  Haio  Caminga,  who 
had  applied  for  a  place  at  his  table.  He  gives  the 
young  man  fair  warning  that  he  will  find  a  table  set 
with  learned  conversation  rather  than  with  choice 
delicacies, — as  far  from  luxury  as  the  table  of 
Pythagoras  or  Diogenes.  The  great  productivity 
of  this  period  would  of  itself  be  sufficient  evidence 
of  a  regular  and  quiet  life.  Nor  need  we  doubt 
that  a  great  many  visitors  were  led  to  Basel  by 
curiosity  or  sympathy  to  make  the  personal  ac- 
quaintance of  the  famous  scholar. 

One  feels  at  once  that  this  was  just  the  atmo- 
sphere for  Erasmus.  His  only  real  grievance  at 
Basel  seems  to  have  been  his  dread  that  he  might 
be  held  accountable  for  the  opinions  of  someone 
with  whom  he  did  not  entirely  agree.  In  the 
course  of  time,  however,  this  condition  of  unstable 
equilibrium  grew  more  and  more  untenable.  The 
actual  "  Reformation  "  of  the  place  could  not  be 
averted,  and  rather  than  remain  in  a  distinctly  Pro- 
testant community  Erasmus  broke  off  all  his  happy 
associations  and  wandered  away  again.  He  takes 
infinite  pains  to  assure  everyone  that  he  was  not 
driven  away,  that  he  went  openly  and  with  the 
good  will  of  all  concerned.  His  account  of  the  re- 
ligious revolution  shows  that  it  was  a  very  temperate 
kind  of  revolution  indeed.  His  friendly  feelings  are 
neatly  expressed  in  a  bit  of  verse  which  he  say  aie 
jotted  down  as  he  was  entering  his  boat  to  depart. 

Mii.*,  1 128. 


444  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1530 

"  Jam,  Basilea,  vale,  qua  non  urbs  altera  multis 
Annis  exhibuit  gratius  hospitium. 
Hinc  precor,  omnia  lata  tibi,  simul  illud,  Erasmo 
Hospes  uti  ne  unquam  tristior  adveniat." 

"  And  now,  fair  Basel,  fare  thee  well! 

These  many  years  to  me  a  host  most  dear. 
All  joys  be  thine !  and  may  Erasmus  find 
A  home  as  happy  as  thou  gav'st  him  here." 

At  Freiburg  he  was  well  received  by  the  magis- 
tracy and  given  a  sufficiently  splendid  lodging  in  an 
unfinished  palace  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian.  He 
has,  of  course,  doubts  about  his  health,  but  thinks 
he  will  stay  a  year,  unless  he  is  driven  away  by 
wars.  In  fact  he  kept  pretty  well  until  the  spring 
of  1530,  when  he  was  attacked  by  a  new  and  painful 
development  of  the  disease  from  which  he  had  so 
long  been  suffering. 

The  references  to  this  illness  of  1530  occur  gener- 
ally in  connection  with  some  allusion  to  the  great 
Diet  of  Augsburg  in  that  year.  Erasmus  says  that 
he  was  asked  to  go  to  this  Diet  by  many  leading 
men,  but  expressly  states  that  he  was  not  asked  by 
the  emperor.  His  illness  gave  him  an  excuse  for 
not  going.  He  says  that  he  could  have  done  no 
good  at  Augsburg  and  we  certainly  need  no  assur- 
ance of  his  to  make  this  quite  clear  to  us.  By  1530 
affairs  had  moved  on  far  beyond  the  point  where 
the  only  advice  he  had  ever  had  to  give,  namely 

be  good  and  wise,  and  all  our  troubles  will  end  at 
once,"  could  be  of  any  service.  In  the  years  from 
1525  to  1529  the  whole  North  of  Germany  had  be- 


I530]  Removal  to  Freiburg  445 

come  welded  into  a  solid  mass  of  resistance  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  system.  The  Lutheran  Reforma- 
tion had  passed  the  stage  of  negative  criticism  and 
had  entered  upon  that  of  constructive  organisation. 

Once  more  we  have  to  ask :  Where  was  there  room 
for  poor  Erasmus  ?  It  was  a  pleasant  fiction  for 
him,  in  his  comfortable  quarters  at  Freiburg,  to 
imagine  that  he  was  really  wanted  at  Augsburg,  but 
who  in  the  world  could  have  wanted  him  ?  The 
time  for  his  "  ifs  "  and  "  buts  "  was  past  and  the 
moment  had  come  when  men  were  ready  to  set  all 
they  held  dear  upon  the  hazard  of  a  doubtful  war. 
The  Diet  at  Augsburg  obeyed  the  emperor  and  re- 
newed the  formal  condemnation  of  Luther  and  his 
works.  The  Protestant  princes  promptly  replied 
by  the  League  of  Schmalkalden.  Their  attitude 
was  simply  one  of  readiness,  not  of  aggression.  For 
the  time  it  answered,  and  delayed  the  actual  out- 
break of  hostiHties  until  long  after  the  death  of 
Erasmus. 

It  is  evident  that  Erasmus  had  little  faith  in  the 
Diet.     He  writes  to  John  Rinckius ' : 

"  Friends  have  written  me  what  is  going  on  at  the 
Diet.  Certain  main  propositions  have  been  made:  First, 
that  the  Germans  shall  furnish  troops  against  the  Turks. 
Second,  that  the  differences  of  doctrine  shall  be  remedied, 
if  possible,  without  bloodshed.  Third,  that  the  com- 
plaints of  those  who  feel  themselves  wronged  shall  be 
heard.  To  accomplish  all  this  an  ecumenical  council  of 
three  years  would  hardly  suffice.  What  will  be  the  issue 
I  know  not.     Unless  God  takes  a  hand  in  the  game,  I 

Mii.S  1299-B-D. 


44^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1530 

see  no  way  out  of  it.     If  the  final  decision  is  not  agreed 
to  by  all  the  provinces,  the  end  will  be  revolution." 

Then  follows  a  minute  description  of  his  recent  ill- 
ness and  again  allusions  to  his  personal  troubles. 

"  I  have  now  for  some  time  been  anxious  to  go  hence 
to  some  other  place.  This  town  is  fine  enough,  but  not 
very  populous,  remote  from  a  river,  well  suited  for  study, 
an  awfully  dear  place,  the  people  not  particularly  hospit- 
able, they  say,  though  so  far  no  one  has  given  me  any 
great  annoyance.  But  I  see  nowhere  a  quiet  haven.  I 
shall  have  to  hold  out  here  until  the  outcome  of  the  Diet 
is  known.  Some  are  predicting  that  action  will  be  taken 
first  about  pecuniary  burdens,  and  that  the  question  of 
heresy  will  be  postponed  to  a  general  council,  and  that 
the  priests,  bishops,  monks,  and  abbots  who  have  been 
turned  out  and  plundered  will  be  put  off  with  words." 

It  is  evident  that  Erasmus  saw  clearly  the  danger 
of  the  imperial  position.  His  shrewd  sense  told  him 
that  Charles  was  very  far  from  grasping  the  real 
extent  of  the  German  resistance.  He  writes  to 
Campeggio ' : 

"  If  the  emperor  is  merely  frightening  his  opponents 
by  threats,  I  can  only  applaud  his  forethought;  but  if  he 
is  really  seeking  a  war,  I  do  not  want  to  be  a  bird  of  evil 
omen,  but  my  mind  shudders  as  often  as  I  look  at  the 
condition  of  things  which  I  think  will  appear  if  war 
breaks  out.  This  trouble  is  very  widely  spread.  I  know 
that  the  emperor  has  great  power;  but  not  all  nations 
recognise  his  authority.     Even  the  Germans  recognise  it 

■  iii.',  1303-A. 


I530]      Last  Reformatory  Treatises       447 

on  certain  conditions,  so  that  they  rather  rule  than  obey; 
for  they  prefer  to  command  rather  than  be  subservient. 
Besides  it  is  evident  that  the  emperor's  lands  are  greatly 
exhausted  by  continual  military  expeditions.  The  flame 
of  war  is  just  now  stirred  up  in  Friesland;  its  prince  is 
said  to  have  professed  the  Gospel  of  Luther.  Many 
states  between  the  Eastern  countries  and  Denmark  are 
in  the  same  condition  and  the  chain  of  evils  stretches 
from  there  as  far  as  Switzerland. 

"  If  the  sects  could  be  tolerated  under  certain  condi- 
tions (as  the  Bohemians  pretend),  it  would,  I  admit,  be 
a  grievous  misfortune,  but  one  more  endurable  than 
war.  In  this  condition  of  things  there  is  nowhere  I 
would  rather  be  than  in  Italy,  but  the  fates  will  have  it 
otherwise. ' ' 

No  more  clever  summary  of  the  situation  than 
this  can  be  imagined ;  and  yet  the  only  practical 
suggestion  in  it,  that  some  principle  of  toleration 
for  the  sects  might  be  discovered  is  a  complete 
denial  of  everything  for  which  Erasmus  pretended 
to  stand.  It  would  have  been  a  recognition  of  the 
right  of  revolution,  and  that  was  the  one  horror 
which  haunted  all  his  dreams. 

Indeed  it  was  the  irony  of  fate  that  the  man  who 
had  spent  his  early  manhood  in  open  attacks  upon 
the  Roman  system,  and  his  maturer  years  in  trying 
to  make  his  peace  with  Rome,  should  now  in  his  old 
age  find  his  really  virulent  critics  on  the  side  of  the 
ancient  faith.  The  "  sects,"  as  he  always  contempt- 
uously called  them,  were  quite  content  with  the 
actual  service  he  had  done  them  and  were  only  too 
eager  to  claim  him  for  their  own.     The  one  ortho- 


44^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1531 

dox  fold,  in  which  he  steadfastly  protested  he  be- 
longed, was  continually  producing  men  who  made 
his  life  a  burden  with  their  reproaches. 

As  long  as  the  Diet  at  Augsburg  lasted,  Erasmus 
continued  to  assure  his  correspondents  that  he  was 
under  the  orders  of  the  emperor  not  to  leave  Frei- 
burg as  he  had  intended  to  do.  Then  the  winter 
began  and  with  it  the  ravages  of  the  plague,  "  nova 
lues,  formerly  peculiar  to  Britain,  but  suddenly 
spreading  over  all  nations."  Why  he  should  have 
been  detained  at  Freiburg  against  his  will  he  gives 
no  intimation,  and,  indeed,  the  whole  story,  appear- 
ing in  letter  after  letter,  seems  to  show  only  his 
annual  restlessness  and  desire  to  say  why  he  did  not 
do  something  different  from  what  he  was  doing. 
At  one  moment  he  thinks  he  must  go  to  France  to 
get  some  wine.  They  say  it  is  a  dreadful  thing  to 
die  of  hunger,  but  he  really  believes  it  is  worse  to  die 
of  thirst.      He  really  must  get  some  drinkable  wine. 

During  the  summer  of  1531  he  went  so  far  as  to 
write  to  the  magistrates  of  Besan^on,  saying  that 
even  before  leaving  Basel  he  had  thought  of  moving 
to  their  city  and  now  when  Freiburg  is  beginning  to 
be  a  dangerous  place,  his  thoughts  are  turning 
thither  again. 

Freiburg  was  plainly  growing  less  attractive — or, 
let  us  say,  was  furnishing  more  and  more  occasions 
of  complaint.  He  had  spent  nearly  two  years  in 
the  abandoned  palace  of  Maximilian  without  know- 
ing, if  we  may  believe  his  own  story,  whether  he 
was  the  guest  of  the  city,  or  whether  he  was  hiring 
the  house  wholly  or  in  part,  or,  if  he  was  hiring  it, 


I 


1531]       Last  Reformatory  Treatises       449 

who  his  landlord  was  or  what  he  was  to  pay.  When, 
after  two  years,  he  was  called  upon  to  move  at  the 
end  of  three  months  and  to  pay  back  rent  for  a  year 
and  a  half,  he  affects  to  be  overwhelmed  with  sur- 
prise and  indignation,  and  writes  a  two-column  letter 
to  the  Provost  of  Chur,  at  the  far  east  end  of  Swit- 
zerland, to  explain.*  The  result  was  that  he  took 
the  hasty,  and,  as  it  seems  to  have  appeared  to  him- 
self, somewhat  absurd  step  of  buying  a  house.  He 
naturally  begins  the  letter,  in  which  he  tells  this  news 
to  John  Rinckius,  with  an  enumeration  of  the  dis- 
agreeables at  Freiburg  and  ends  it  by  declaring  that 
the  house  shall  not  keep  him  there  if  things  go  as 
he  wishes.  His  account  of  the  affair  may  serve  us 
as  an  illustration  of  the  unconquerable  humour  with 
which  he  faced  life  to  the  last.' 

"  But  now  here  is  something  for  you  to  laugh  at.  If 
anyone  should  tell  you  that  Erasmus,  now  nearly  seventy, 
had  taken  a  wife,  would  n't  you  make  the  sign  of  the 
cross  three  or  four  times  over  ?  I  know  you  would,  and 
small  blame  to  you.  Now  my  dear  Rinckius,  I  have 
done  a  thing  no  less  difficult  and  burdensome  and  quite 
as  foreign  to  my  tastes  and  habits.  I  have  bought  a 
house,  a  fine  one  enough,  but  at  a  very  unfair  price. 
Who  shall  now  despair  of  seeing  rivers  turn  about  and 
run  up-hill,  when  Erasmus,  who  all  his  life  has  made 
everything  give  place  to  learned  leisure,  has  become  a 
bargain-driver,  a  buyer,  a  giver  of  mortgages,  a  builder 
and,  in  place  of  the  Muses,  is  now  dealing  with  carpen- 
ters and  workers  in  iron,  in  stone,  and  in  glass.  These 
cares,  my  dear  Rinckius,  which  my  soul  has  always 
~iii.«,  1426-E.  *  iii.*,  1418-D. 

89 


450  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1531 

abhorred,  have  just  about  bored  me  to  death.  So  far  I 
am  a  stranger  in  my  own  house,  for,  though  it  is  spacious 
enough,  there  is  not  a  nest  in  it  where  I  can  safely  trust 
my  poor  body.  One  chamber  I  have  built  with  an  open 
fireplace  and  have  boarded  it,  floor  and  sides,  but  on 
account  of  the  plastering- 1  have  not  yet  dared  to  trust 
myself  in  it." 

Five  weeks  later  he  writes ' : 

"  This  house  I  have  bought  makes  me  no  end  of 
trouble;  and  yet  there  is  not  a  place  in  the  whole  of  it 
suited  to  my  body. ' ' 

The  biographer  of  Erasmus  is  tempted  to  draw 
a  somewhat  pathetic  picture  of  his  last  years;  an 
aged  man,  broken  with  pain  and  disappointment, 
rejected  by  all  parties,  without  influence  in  the 
world,  living  under  continual  fear  of  some  unfore- 
seen disaster, — these  form,  indeed,  the  elements  for 
a  sufficiently  mournful  description.  And  yet  the 
end  of  Erasmus'  course  was  such  as  he  had  been 
deliberately  planning  for  himself  all  his  life  long. 
Isolation  from  all  the  various  groupings  of  men  upon 
great  public  questions  had  been  his  avowed  ideal, 
and  he  had  reached  it.  He  had  never  aimed  to 
form  a  "  school  "  and  he  left  no  followers  behind 
him.  On  the  other  hand,  his  activities  were  pract- 
ically unchecked  by  advancing  years.  His  intel- 
lectual output  during  his  residence  at  Freiburg  was 
hardly  inferior  either  in  quantity  or  quality  to  that 
of  any  earlier  period  of  equal  length.  His  corre- 
spondence  falls   off  somewhat  in  volume,   but  its 

Uii.^  1419-F. 


APOPHTHEGME^, 
tl^atie  to  (MHyptontpUAttithtMttic 
ano  fentennous  faipngee^of  cettatti 

fi)itic8mtiiS>mottfByti(iaof:si^m8ytaB90 

snatnts » t)ot|icb»speptedraunt«p;oftta* 

Ue  to  ttsiHtj  partdp  fb;  afl  nunucof 

jp(r/bn(0, 9  efpectaUp  <]e(mtlemm« 

if icfigat^banD  fompfltD 

Ai]latinebpt{K(p0tit^ 

^U0  da^  j3|^ 

ofjKotoo* 

t^antf* 

Knb  tuto  (ranflateb  ftrto 

lA^ctiDan. 


riTLE-PAQE  TO  THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  EDITION 

OF  THE  "apophthegms  OF  ERASMUS," 

TRANSLATED  BY  UDALL,  1542. 


1532]       Last  Reformatory  Treatises       451 

style  is  as  fresh  and  the  variety  of  persons  to  whom 
it  is  addressed  continues  as  great  as  ever.  New 
friends  take  the  place  of  those  he  has  lost,  and  his 
personal  philosophy,  always  a  cheerful  one,  remains 
to  comfort  him  to  the  last.  He  consoles  himself 
by  the  friendship  of  individuals  against  the  sHghts 
of  parties  and  their  leaders. 

The  only  falling  off  in  Erasmus'  productivity 
during  the  years  from  1530  to  1535  is  in  the  quality 
of  originality.  We  are  no  longer  to  expect  a  Praise 
of  Folly  or  a  new  volume  of  Colloquies;  but  we  can 
only  marvel  at  the  vitality  still  evident  in  everything 
that  comes  from  his  restless  pen.  His  humour,  un- 
conquered  by  the  growing  weaknesses  of  his  flesh, 
flashes  out  with  almost  its  old-time  brilliancy.  His 
industry  seems  undiminished.  He  is  seldom  with- 
out a  piece  of  editorial  work,  and  he  is  constantly 
being  asked  to  write  dedications  for  works  edited 
by  others. 

In  1 532  he  published  his  Apophthegmata  or  Sayings 
of  the  Ancients,'  a  work  in  some  ways  similar  to  the 
Adages,  but  showing  far  less  of  the  machinery  of 
scholarship.  These  are  pleasant  little  stories,  gen- 
erally told  in  a  few  lines  in  anecdote  form  and 
designed  to  carry  some  moral  lesson.  They  are 
arranged  in  groups  under  the  name  of  the  principal 
person  mentioned  as,  for  example,  Socratica,  Dio- 
genes Cynicus,  Philip  of  Macedon,  Demosthenes, 
and  so  forth.  Doubtless  the  material  for  this  collec- 
tion had  long  been  gathering,  but  the  mere  arrange- 

'  Apophthegmata    lepideque    dicta   principum,   philosophorum    ac 
diver  si  generis  hominum,  etc.,  iv.,  93-380. 


452  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1533 

ment  and  revision  of  it  was  a  work  to  tax  severely 
the  patience  and  endurance  of  a  man  so  enfeebled 
by  physical  troubles  as  was  Erasmus  in  1532. 

A  little  treatise  of  1533  on  Preparation  for 
Death '  is  interesting  chiefly  for  the  things  it  does 
not  say.  Its  emphasis  throughout  is  on  the  neces- 
sity of  a  Christian  life  as  the  true  preparation  for  a 
Christian  death.  The  very  essence  of  Protestantism, 
the  direct  dealing  of  the  human  soul  with  its  God, 
may  be  found  here.  Protest  as  Erasmus  might  his 
devotion  to  the  forms  of  the  Church,  when  he  wrote 
this  essay  he  was  giving  more  aid  and  comfort  to  the 
enemy  than  if  he  had  gone  over  to  him  with  all  his 
arms  in  his  hands.  Of  course  he  explains  away  as 
much  of  the  clearness  of  his  statement  as  he  can, 
but  the  words  remain  and  his  own  practice  went  far 
to  confirm  them.  He  emphasises  at  every  turn  the 
duty  of  respect  for  traditions,  but  no  man  in  the 
year  1533  could  write  as  he  does  here  of  the  nature 
of  sacraments  without  knowing  how  his  words  would 
be  interpreted.  If  the  sacraments  were,  even  qiio- 
dammodo,  "  symbols  "  of  the  divine  good  will  to 
men,  then  the  whole  objective,  or,  to  speak  technic- 
ally, the  "  opus  operatum  "  theory  of  the  sacramental 
system  was  brought  in  question,  and  men  would 
not  stop  until  they  had  pushed  this  question  to  its 
rational  issue.  Here  as  elsewhere,  if  we  would  estim- 
ate the  service  of  Erasmus  to  the  Reformation,  we 
must  try  to  feel  out  of  the  windings  of  his  rhetoric 
the  impression  he  wished  to  leave  uppermost  in  the 

•  Liber  quomodo  se  quisque  debeat  prceparare  ad  mortem,  v.,  1293- 
1318. 


1535 1       Last  Reformatory  Treatises       453 

reader's  mind,  and  as  to  that  we  can  hardly  hesitate. 
Even  a  devout  Catholic  could  not  read  carefully 
this  appeal  to  the  essentials  of  religion  without  feel- 
ing a  diminished  sense  of  the  value  of  forms,  and  a 
wavering  mind  could  hardly  fail  to  be  carried  over 
pretty  far  towards  the  conclusion  that  forms  so 
dangerous  as  these  were  better  reformed  out  of 
existence. 

The  most  important  work  of  the  Freiburg  period 
was  the  great  treatise  on  the  Christian  minister, 
to  which  Erasmus  gave  the  title  of  Ecclesiastcs, 
or  The  Gospel  Preacher  {concionator  evangelicus). 
In  its  printed  form  the  Ecclesiastes  fills  over  one 
hundred  and  sixty  folio  pages  and  would  make 
more  than  two  volumes  as  large  as  this  present  one. 
Of  all  the  evils  in  the  existing  church  system,  none 
had  been  more  evident  since  the  height  of  the 
Middle  Ages  than  the  neglect  of  preaching.  The 
very  first  effort  of  the  organised  Lutheran  party 
had  been  to  restore  the  right  balance  between  the 
sacramental  and  the  moral  aspects  of  church  admin- 
istration by  emphasising  the  preaching  and  diminish- 
ing the  importance  of  all  sacramental  observances. 
And  this  is  precisely  the  position  of  Erasmus.  He 
begins  with  a  careful  definition  of  the  Church  {ec- 
clesici)  as  the  assembly  {concid)  of  Christians.  Christ 
is  the  great  preacher  and  every  other  ecclesiastes  is 
only  his  representative  and  herald.  The  highest 
function  of  the  preacher  is  that  of  teaching.  At 
first  the  bishops  were  the  sole  teachers;  now  the 
teaching  has  passed  to  priests  and  monks,  though  it 
is  a  function  far  surpassing  the  dignity  of  kings. 


454  Desiderius  Erasmus  [^535- 

As  a  model  of  the  complete  bishop  Erasmus  gives 
a  very  beautiful  description  of  Warham,  dwelling 
especially  upon  his  great  efficiency  in  a  vast  variety 
of  duties,  an  efficiency  made  possible  only  by  the 
strictest  frugality  of  life  and  the  rigid  exclusion  of 
all  luxury  and  idle  amusement. 

This  brief  notice  of  the  Ecclesiastes  concludes  our 
review  of  the  writings  of  Erasmus,  and  this  seems 
the  fitting  place  to  note  what  was  the  final  judg- 
ment upon  them  of  that  Church  to  which  he  de- 
clared himself  devoted  and  from  whose  teachings  he 
insisted  he  had  never  departed  by  so  much  as  a 
hair's  breadth.  It  was  not  until  the  wave  of  the 
Catholic  Reaction  had  begun  to  rise  into  a  furious 
torrent  that  a  definite  policy  of  disapproval  of  Eras- 
mus on  the  part  of  the  Roman  authorities  took  the 
place  of  the  former  leniency.  Lists  of  books  the 
reading  of  which  was  prohibited  to  good  Christians 
were  published  in  many  parts  of  Europe  by  sov- 
ereigns, universities,  inquisitors,  or  commissions  from 
1524  on.'  Such  lists  were  generally  called  "  Cata- 
logues." The  papacy  as  such  took  no  part  in  this 
process  until  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Trent.  The 
earliest  papal  list  or  "  Index  "  was  published  by 
Paul  IV,  in  1559.  It  was  arranged  in  three  classes, 
the  first  containing  the  names  of  authors  who  were, 
as  it  were,  heretics  by  intention  {ex  professo),  and 
all  of  whose  writings  were  condemned,  no  matter 
whether  they  had  any  reference  to  religion  or  not. 


'  F.  H.  Reusch,  Der  Index  der  verbotenen  Biicher,  1883,  i.,  347- 
355. 


1535]      Last  Reformatory  Treatises       455 

In  the  second  class  were  names  of  authors  some  of 
whose  writings  had  been  shown  to  tend  towards 
heresy  or  the  superstitions  of  magic,  etc.  The  third 
class  comprised  the  titles  of  books,  generally  by 
anonymous  writers,  which  contained  specially  dan- 
gerous doctrines. 

In  this  first  papal  Index  Erasmus  takes  a  place  of 
extraordinary  prominence.  Not  only  was  he  placed 
in  the  first  class,  but  a  special  clause  was  added  to 
his  name:  "  with  all  his  commentaries,  notes, 
scholiuy  dialogues,  letters,  censures,  translations, 
books,  and  writings,  even  when  they  contain  nothing 
against  religion  or  about  religion."  The  Index  of 
Paul  IV.  was,  however,  by  no  means  generally  ac- 
cepted by  the  people  of  Europe.  In  many  countries 
it  was  flatly  rejected.  The  Council  of  Trent  at  its 
final  session  (i  562-1 563)  took  up  the  matter  and 
appointed  a  commission  to  revise  the  harshest 
clauses.  The  result  of  this  revision  appears  in  the 
Index  of  Pius  IV.  in  1564.  There  Erasmus  has 
been  dropped  from  the  first  class  and  in  the  second 
appear  only  a  few  of  his  most  doubtful  works,  the 
Colloquies,  Praise  of  Folly,  Christian  Marriage,  and 
one  or  two  others.  In  1590  Sixtus  V.  replaced  him 
in  the  first  class,  and  in  1596  Clement  VIII.  restored 
him  again  to  the  conditions  of  the  Index  of  Trent. 

Thus  the  fate  of  Erasmus  after  death  was  very 
much  what  it  had  been  in  his  life.  As  honest  Duke 
Frederick  had  said  :  "  One  never  knows  how  to  take 
him. '  *  The  highest  authority  could  not  quite  deter- 
mine whether  he  was  a  thorough-going  heretic  or 
only  heretical  "  north-north-west." 


45^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1535 

In  the  month  of  August,  1535,  after  a  residence 
of  six  busy  years  at  Freiburg,  Erasmus  returned  to 
Basel.  Once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  he  has  to 
account  for  a  change  of  residence.  At  Freiburg  he 
had  been  continually  complaining  of  the  place,  his 
quarters,  and  the  people;  yet  he  says  he  had  no 
fixed  intention  of  leaving  there  permanently.  He 
had  been  giving  matter  to  the  press  during  these  six 
years  without  any  special  difficulty,  but  suddenly 
he  discovers  that  his  Ecclesiastes  cannot  be  prop- 
erly printed  at  Basel  without  his  presence.  He 
has  suffered  so  much,  he  writes  to  the  bishop  of 
Cracow,*  that  he  prefers  to  try  a  change  of  air  even 
at  the  risk  of  death.  He  was  carried  in  a  covered 
carriage,  "  made  for  women,"  to  Basel,  "  a  health- 
ful and  pleasant  city,  whose  hospitality  I  have  en- 
joyed for  many  years.  There,  in  expectation  of  my 
coming,  a  room  suited  to  my  needs  had  been  pre- 
pared by  my  friends." 

It  is  marvellous  how  the  permanent  instincts  of 
his  life  assert  themselves  to  the  last.  In  October, 
1535,  he  writes  to  a  magistrate  of  Besan^on: 

"  Almost  incredible  as  it  seems,  I  have  left  my  nest 
and  flown  hither,  meaning  to  fly  to  you  when  I  shall 
have  recovered  my  strength.  The  wintry  September  has 
compelled  me  to  cast  anchor  here  and  so  we  shall  have 
to  wait  for  the  swallows.  The  pope  wants  to  gold-plate 
me  whether  I  will  or  no,  and  has  offered  me  the  provost- 
ship  of  Deventer  now  that  the  harpies  are  all  got  rid  of. 
But  I  am  determined,  though  ten  provostships  were 
offered  me,  not  to  take  one  of  them.     .     .     .     Shall  I, 

'iii.«,  151  i-C. 


1535]  Return  to  Basel  457 

a   dying   man,    accept   burdens   which    I    have   always 
refused  ?  " 

Just  as  he  arrived  at  Basel  he  had  written: 

"  What  has  happened  in  England  to  Fisher  and  More, 
a  pair  of  men,  than  whom  England  never  had  a  better  or 
a  holier,  you  will  learn  from  the  fragment  of  a  letter 
which  I  send  you.  In  More  I  seem  myself  to  have 
perished,  so  completely  was  there,  as  Pythagoras  has  it, 
but  one  soul  to  both  of  us.  Such  are  the  tides  of  human 
life!  " 

It  is  pleasant  to  believe  that  the  last  days  of 
Erasmus  were  cheered  by  the  thought  that  his  pro- 
testations of  fidelity  to  the  Roman  institution  were 
not  wholly  unrewarded,  though,  as  he  says,  there 
were  still  men  at  Rome  who  were  doing  their  best 
to  blacken  his  fame.  He  had  welcomed  the  election 
of  Paul  III.  in  much  the  same  language  as  he  had 
employed  in  regard  to  Leo  X.,  Hadrian  VI.,  and 
Clement  VII.  He  wrote  to  him  at  once,  but  we 
have,  unfortunately,  only  the  brief  reply  of  the 
pope.  It  is  a  very  amiable  and  appreciative  note, 
recognising  the  value  of  Erasmus*  services  and  ex- 
pressing entire  confidence  in  their  continuance.  It 
is  quite  in  harmony  with  his  whole  career  that  these 
congratulations  of  the  pope  should  have  come  to 
him  in  Basel,  now  thoroughly  converted  into  a  Pro- 
testant community,  and  in  the  midst  of  friends  the 
most  tried  and  true  he  had  ever  had,  all  of  them  Pro- 
testants, but  all  willing  to  forget  differences  in  their 
common  regard  for  the  dying  scholar. 


45^  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1536 

We  are  not  well  informed  as  to  the  end  of  Eras- 
mus' life.  The  last  letter  in  the  collection  of  Le 
Clerc,  perhaps  the  last  he  ever  wrote,  is  to  his  old 
friend  Goclenius  at  Louvain,  under  date  of  June 
28,  1536.  He  is  among  faithful  friends,  better 
friends  than  he  had  at  Freiburg,  "  but  on  account 
of  differences  in  doctrine  I  would  rather  end  my  life 
elsewhere.  Would  that  Brabant  were  nearer!" 
Again  he  repeats  his  declaration  that  he  came  to 
Basel  only  for  a  change  of  air  and  was  intending  to 
go  elsewhere  as  soon  as  he  felt  better.  The  ruling 
passion  was  strong  upon  him  even  to  his  death. 

The  story  of  his  last  days  comes  to  us  through 
the  excellent  Beatus  Rhenanus,  his  devoted  friend 
and  admirer.  The  winter  brought  on  a  terrible 
attack  of  gout,  succeeded  in  the  early  summer  by  a 
continuous  dysentery  which  proved  incurable.  In 
spite  of  pain  and  weakness  he  never  lost  a  moment's 
opportunity  of  work,  the  witness  whereof  is  the 
treatise  De  Puritate  Ecclesice  and  the  edition  of 
Origen.  He  was  in  the  house  of  the  son  of  his  old 
friend  Froben,  the  intimates  of  his  earlier  residence 
were  all  about  him,  and  evidently  were  glad  and 
proud  to  have  him  again  in  their  midst. 

We  have  no  suggestion,  in  the  eleven  months  of 
his  stay  at  Basel,  of  any  personal  dealings  with  the 
Roman  clergy,  nor  of  the  presence  of  any  minister 
of  religion  at  his  death-bed.  He  had  lived  a  cosmo- 
politan of  the  earth ;  he  died,  so  far  as  we  know,  a 
cosmopolitan  of  the  world  to  come — a  Christian  man 
trusting  for  his  future  to  the  simple  faith  in  right 
doing  and  straight  thinking  which  had  really  been 


1536]  Death  459 

his  creed  through  life.  His  death  occurred  on  the 
1 2th  of  July,  1536.  Protestant  Basel  claimed  as  her 
own  the  man  who  had  turned  his  back  on  her  when 
she  was  working  through  her  own  religious  problem, 
but  who  had  after  all  been  drawn  to  her  again  by 
the  subtle  ties  of  a  sympathy  he  could  not  or  would 
not  openly  acknowledge. 

"  How  great  was  the  public  grief,"  says  Beatus,  "  was 
shown  by  the  throng  of  people  to  take  their  last  look  at 
the  departed.  He  was  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  students 
to  the  cathedral  and  there  near  the  steps  which  lead  up 
to  the  choir,  on  the  left  side  of  the  church,  by  the  chapel 
of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  was  honourably  laid  to  rest.  In 
the  funeral  procession  walked  the  chief  magistrate  and 
many  members  of  the  council.  Of  the  professors  and 
students  of  the  University  not  one  was  absent." 

The  impression  of  Beatus'  narration  is  confirmed 
by  a  letter '  of  the  Leipzig  physician,  Heinrich 
Stromer,  written  immediately  after  the  death -of 
Erasmus  to  George  Spalatin.     He  adds: 

"  The  great  scholar  was  completely  absorbed  in  restor- 
ing the  Greek  text  of  Origen,  so  that  though  his  illness 
was  extremely  painful,  he  would  not  give  up  till  death 
itself  wrested  the  pen  from  his  hand.  His  last  words  on 
earth,  spoken  in  the  midst  of  his  heavy  groaning,  were 
these:  '  Oh,  Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  God,  have  mercy  upon 
me!  I  will  sing  of  the  mercy  of  God  and  of  his  judg- 
ment.' And  therein  you  can  see  the  truly  Christian 
spirit  of  the  man." 

'  Adalbert  Horawitz,  Erasmiana  ;  in  Sitzungsberichte  der  Wiener 
Akademie  der  Wissenschaften,  xcv.,  608. 


460  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1536 

The  last  will  of  Erasmus,  made  in  due  form  on 
the  1 2th  of  February,  1536,  shows  him  to  have 
been  possessed  of  a  comfortable  property.  He  ap- 
points Boniface  Amerbach  general  executor  of  all  his 
estate.  He  gives  substantial  legacies  to  several 
friends  and  servants,  provides  for  the  sale  of  his 
library  to  John  k  Lasco,  and  finally  directs  his 
executor  to  give  the  remainder  to  poor  and  infirm 
persons,  especially  to  provide  dowries  for  poor  girls 
and  to  help  young  men  of  good  promise. 

Expressions  of  grief  and  reverence  for  the  great 
scholar  came  from  the  men  of  all  parties  who  could 
think  of  him  as  the  prince  of  learning  and  the  advo- 
cate of  right  living.  Only  those  who  could  not 
forgive  him  his  refusal  to  enter  the  ranks  of  any 
party  failed  to  do  honour  to  his  memory. 

Let  us  ask  once  more  in  conclusion  what  was,  pre- 
cisely, the  contribution  of  this  man  to  the  work  of 
the  Reformation.  If  by  "  Reformation  "  we  mean 
only  the  work  which  Luther  believed  himself  to  be 
doing,  we  must  limit  our  answer  to  the  somewhat 
scanty  acknowledgment  he  was  ready  to  make  of 
his  indebtedness  to  Erasmus  as  a  scholar.  But  we 
have  learned  that  Luther's  own  conception  of  the 
Reformation  movement  was  a  very  narrow  and  in- 
adequate one.  lie  believed  it  to  be  limited  to  a 
purely  religious  revival  on  the  basis  of  a  true  under- 
standing of  Scripture.  In  reality  it  was  the  whole 
great  revolt  of  the  human  mind  against  arbitrary 
and  conventional  limitations,  and  it  is  only  when  we 
study  it  in  this  light  that  we  can  measure  the  influ- 


Y)^\^ 


christo  seryatori  s. 

DESIDERIO    EJLA,S3tO    ROTERODAMO 

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31. P.  XXXVI. 


INSCRIPTION  ON  THE  TOMB  OF  ERASMUS,  AT  BASEL. 

FROM  KNIQHT'S   "  UFE  OF  ERASMUS." 


1536]  Conclusion  461 

ence  of  Erasmus  upon  it.  First  and  most  important 
was  his  insistence,  begun  in  the  Enchiridion  and 
continued  even  through  the  Ecclesiastcs,  upon  the 
principle  of  a  sound,  sane,  reasonable  individual 
judgment,  not  in  opposition  to  the  prevailing  author- 
ity of  tradition,  but  in  interpretation  of  it.  To  be 
sure  this  was  no  absolutely  new  thing  in  the  world. 
It  had  been  before  men's  minds  since  the  days  of 
Petrarch,  but  it  had  never  before  found  so  many- 
sided  and  so  consistent  an  expression  in  the  North. 
It  had  taken  three  generations  since  Petrarch  for 
the  slower  mind  of  the  northern  peoples  to  ripen  to 
the  point  of  receiving  this  idea.  They  took  it  now 
from  Erasmus  with  enthusiasm.  It  came  to  them 
in  his  satire  in  such  form  that  the  humblest  reader 
could  understand  it.  It  spoke  to  them  in  his  serious 
treatises  in  language  which  appealed  to  the  scholar 
at  once  by  its  literary  finish  and  by  its  enormous 
learning  and  seriousness.  The  private  judgment  of 
the  individual  is  really,  no  matter  how  concealed, 
the  tribunal  to  which  the  reader  is  continually  re- 
ferred. 

Closely  akin  to  this  is  the  appeal,  the  other  dis- 
tinguishing mark  of  the  Renaissance  man,  to  the 
essential  rightness  of  what  is  natural.  The  mediae- 
val ideal  of  morals  had  been  that  whatever  was 
natural  was  essentially  wrong.  It  could  be  right 
only  in  so  far  as  it  was  given  a  formal  guarantee  by 
some  recognised  authority.  Erasmus  represents 
human  life  throughout  as  being,  of  its  very  nature,  in 
harmony  with  the  eternal  law  of  morality.  Espec- 
ially family  life  in  all  its  forms,  the   natural   and 


462  Desiderius  Erasmus  [1536 

mutual  duties  of  man  and  wife,  the  tender  love  and 
care  of  children,  the  honourable  uses  of  wealth  in 
the  service  of  the  state  and  of  religion,  the  obliga- 
tions of  friendship,  the  natural  piety  of  the  simple 
child  of  God,  the  dignity  and  responsibility  of  rulers 
as  the  agents  of  a  divine  order  among  men,  the 
supreme  duty  of  peace, — these  are  the  constantly 
recurring  subjects  of  his  well-trained  pen.  Even  in 
his  literary  ideals  the  same  general  principle  of 
naturalness  prevails.  Style  is  an  instrument  to  be 
cultivated ;  it  has  a  charm  of  its  own  worth  the  care- 
ful attention  of  the  scholar;  but,  after  all,  style  is 
only  a  means  of  conveying  thought,  and  the  object 
of  it  is  to  carry  the  highest  thought  in  the  clearest 
and  most  direct  fashion. 

Now  one  may  well  ask :  How  is  all  this  nobility 
and  elevation  of  purpose  to  be  reconciled  with  the 
obvious  personal  limitations  of  Erasmus'  character  ? 
How  does  this  profound  interest  in  the  welfare  of 
human  society  go  with  a  self-centred,  nervous 
dread  of  criticism  which  rises  at  times  to  the  hyster- 
ical point  ?  How  account  for  the  fear  that  the  very 
ideas  he  seems  most  to  cherish  might  be  spread 
abroad  among  the  very  people  for  whom  they  seem 
especially  intended  ?  How  explain  the  elaborate 
contradictions  in  his  own  accounts  of  the  motives 
that  led  to  his  most  open  actions  ?  Such  a  personal- 
ity, we  are  tempted  to  say,  is  beneath  our  honest 
contempt.  It  is  the  very  negation  of  all  the  ideals 
of  which  the  man  tried  to  pose  as  the  champion. 

The  answer  to  this  difificulty  is  that  we  find  our. 
selves  here  before  the  perpetual  mystery  of  genius. 


1536]  Conclusion  463 

Erasmus  partially  solved  the  problem  for  us  when 
he  declared  that  while  he  was  at  work  a  certain 
demon  seemed  to  take  possession  of  him  and  to 
carry  him  on  without  his  will.  His  pen  seemed  to 
have  a  volition  of  its  own  and  to  obey  the  training 
of  his  years  of  practice  by  a  certain  instinct.  Just 
as  his  powerful  will  compelled  his  frail  and  suffering 
body  to  do  the  bidding  of  his  unconquerable  spirit, 
so  the  literary  impulse  carried  him  on  to  utterances 
far  beyond  the  capacity  of  his  personality  to  realise 
in  action.  If  Erasmus  could  have  lived  up  to  him- 
self, he  would  have  been  the  greatest  of  men.  Let 
us  in  our  judgment  of  him  beware  lest  we  make 
superhuman  demands  upon  him.  It  is  as  idle  as  it 
is  unjust  to  ask  that  Erasmus  should  be  both  Eras- 
mus and  Luther  at  once.  Our  narrative  has  not 
sought  to  cover  up  or  to  disguise  the  repellent  as- 
pects of  his  outward  attitude  towards  the  Reforma- 
tion. May  it  on  the  other  hand  avoid  the  error  of 
obscuring  his  immense  service  to  the  cause  with 
which  his  nature  forbade  him  outwardly  to  identify 
himself. 


INDEX 


Adages,  first  edition,  88-91  ;  Al- 
dine  edition,  136 

Adrian,  Hebrew  teacher,  266,267 

Adrian  VI.,  pope,  403 

Agricola,  Rudolf,  7 

Albert  of  Mainz,  291 ;  letter  to, 
309-318 

Aldus  Manutius,  125  ;  corre- 
spondence with  Erasmus,  134- 
137  ;  his  printing-office,  138 

Aleander,  Girolamo,  at  Venice, 
143  ;  at  Louvain,  349 

Alexander  of  Scotland,  Arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews,  144, 
146;  death,  153 

Algerus,  treatise  on  the  Euchar- 
ist, 410 

Amerbach,  Boniface,  executor, 
460 

Amerbach,  the  brothers,  236 

Ammonius,  Andreas, correspond- 
ence with  Erasmus,  187-192, 
262,  263 

Andrelinus,  Faustus,  41  ;  letter 
from  Erasmus,  80  ;  writes  a 
preface  to  the  Adages,  93 

Apophthegmata,  451 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  Erasmus' and 
Colet's  views  of,  72 

d'  Asola,  Andreas,  138-140 

d'  Asola,  Francesco,  139,  141 

Atensis,  John,  264 

Augsburg  Confession,  401 

Augsburg,  Diet  at,  444-448 

Augustinianism,  278,  283-285, 
380-383 

Augustinus,  pupil  of  Erasmus,  93 


B 


Badius,  publisher  at  Paris,   134 
Basel,  residence  in,  232-240,  347, 

441-443.  456  sqq. 
Battus,  James,  48 ;  correspond- 
ence   with    Erasmus,   48-58  ; 
death,  61 
Beatus   Rhenanus,    239 ;     letter 

to,  241-246 
Bedda,  Natalis,  428 
Berquin,  Louis  de,  428-432 
Bertin,  St.,  abbot  of,  223 
Besan9on,    letter    to   magistrate 

of,  456 
Bois-le-Duc  ('s  Hertogenbosch), 

school  at,  8 
Bologna,  visit  to,  130-135 
Botzheim,  John,  canon  of  Con- 
stance, letter  to  {catalogs  lu- 
cubrationum),    126;    visit    to, 

352.  356 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  8 
Budaeus,  William,   letter   from, 

248;  letter  to,  251,  427 
Busleiden,    Jerome,   founder  of 
the  College  of  the  Three  Lan- 
guages, 265 


Cambrai,  bishop  of  and  resid- 
ence in,  6,  33,  41 

Cambridge,  life  at,  193-195 

Caminga,  Haio,  443 

Campeggio,  Cardinal,  letters  to, 
302,  405 

Carteromachos,  Scipio,  148 


465 


466 


Index 


Charles  I.  of  Spain  (V.  of  Ger- 
many), makes  Erasmus  a  coun- 
cillor, 253,  262 ;  elected  em- 
peror, 343-345  ;  holds  the 
Diet  at  Worms,  345,  346 

Ciceronianus,  treatise  on  rhet- 
oric, selection  from,    149-151 

Cinicampius  (Eschenfeld),  243  ; 
letter  from  Erasmus,  246,  247 

Clement  VII.,  pope,  letter  to, 
404 

Clyston,  attendant  of  Erasmus' 
pupils,  125,  127,  136 

Colet,  John,  64,  65  ;  teacher  at 
Oxford,  68  ;  founder  of  St. 
Paul's  school,  70  ;  his  charac- 
ter, 71-75  ;  invites  Erasmus 
to  teach  at  Oxford,  82-86 ; 
correspondence  of  i  5  1 1  (?)- 
I  5  I  2,  195-200  ;  present  at 
Canterbury  "  pilgrimage,"  217 

College  Montaigu,  34-39 

Comparison  of  the  Virgin  and 
the  Martyr,  436,  437 

Compendium  Vita,  4 

Complutensian  Polyglot,  201 

Constance,  visit  at,  352 

Cop,  William,  250 

Copia  verborum  et  rerum,  dedi- 
cation, 197  ;  analysis  of,  208- 
214 

Cornelius,  companion  of  Eras- 
mus at  Steyn,  14 

D 

Dante,  De  Monarchia,  214. 

De  contemptu  mutidi,  treatise, 20- 

22,  28 
Deventer,  school  at,  5-7 
Diversoria,   colloquy  describing 

inns,  127,  226-231 
Dorpius,    Martin,    criticises   the 

Praise  of  Folly,  176,  264 
DUrer,  Albert,  diary  of,  333,  334 


Ecclesiastes ,  453,454 
Egmund,  Carmelite  at  Louvain, 
322,  428 


Enchiridion  niilitis  Christiani, 
origin,  96,  97  ;  analysis  of,  98- 
III  ;  preface  to  second  edition, 
111-115  ;  its  teaching,  286 

England,  life  in,  62-86,  179  jy^. 

EpisiolcB    ohscurorum    virorum, 

279.  363 
f^ppendorf,  Henry,  352 
J  Erasmus,  nationality,  1-3;  birth, 
\  3  ;  at  Gouda,  5  ;  at  Utrecht,  5  ; 
at  Deventer,  5-8  ;  at 's  Herto- 
genbosch,  8,  9 :  at  Steyn,  15- 
23  ;  with  the  bishop  of  Cam- 
brai,  26  ;  ordained  priest,  33, 
n.;  at  Paris,  33-40;  return  to 
Cambrai,  41;  troubles  at  Paris, 
42-47  ;  correspondence  with 
Battus,  48-58  ;  visit  to  Tour- 
nehens,  54 ;  at  Louvain,  61  ; 
in  England,  62-86 ;  at  Or- 
leans, 92  ;  views  on  war,  118, 
128  ;  goes  to  Italy,  125  ;  Doc- 
tor's degree,  128  ;  in  Bologna, 
130-135  ;  life  at  Venice,  137- 
143  ;  at  Padua,  144  ;  at  Siena, 
146  ;  at  Rome,  146-156  ;  Eng- 
lish residence  (1509-15  14), 
179-217  ;  correspondence  with 
Ammonius,  187-192  ;  "  Pro- 
fessor "  at  Cambridge,  193— 
195  ;  literary  work  in  England, 
197-217  ;  letter  to  Servatius, 
218-224;  journeys,  226-231, 
241-246;  at  Basel,  232-240; 
called  to  Ingolstadt  and  else- 
where, 247  ;  offered  a  bishop- 
ric, 248  ;  called  to  Paris,  248- 
253  ;  made  councillor  of 
Charles  V.,  253-255  ;  settles 
at  Louvain,  264 ;  his  view  of 
the  Reform,  285-288  ;  view  of 
indulgences,  292 ;  letter  to 
Wolsey,  298-301  ;  to  Campeg- 
gio,  302  ;  to  Leo  X.,  303-307; 
to  Albert  of  Mainz,  309-319  ; 
to  Hoogstraaten,  326-329; 
removal  to  Basel,  347  ;  letter 
to  Laurinus,  347-361  ;  visit  to 
Constance,  352;  contest 
with    Hutten,    362-378 ;    the 


Index 


467 


E  rasm  u  s — con  tin  tied 

free-will  controversy,  383-401 ; 
the  Eucharist  controversy, 
407-418  ;  relations  with  Ber- 
quin,  428-432 ;  life  at  Basel, 
441-443  ;  goes  to  Freiburg  in 
Breisgau,  444 ;  relation  to 
Augsburg  Diet,  444-448;  buys 
a  house,  449 ;  his  place  in  the 
Index,  454,  455 ;  return  to 
Basel,  456;  death,  457-459; 
last  will,  460 ;  final  estimate 
of,  460-463 

Ernest  of  Bavaria,  invites  Eras- 
mus to  Ingolstadt,  247 

Eschenfeld  (Cinicampius),  243  : 
letter  from  Erasmus,  246,  247 

Eucharist,  history  of,  407  ;  Lu- 
ther's view,  407-409  ;  Eras- 
mus on,  409-418 

Expostulatio  cum  Eras  mo  of 
Hutten,  366-372 


Familiar  Colloquies,  420-423  ; 
attacked  by  the  Sorbonne  and 
by  Luther,  424 ;  condemned 
at  Paris  and  in  England,  433 

Ferdinand  of  Spain,  119 

Fisher,  Robert,  63 

Francis  L,  King  of  France,  calls 
Erasmus  to  Paris,  248-253 

Fratres  Collationarii,  10 

Frederic  the  Wise,  Elector  of 
Saxony,  letter  to,  325  ;  inter- 
view with,  326  ;  imperial  can- 
didate, 344 

Free  will,  the  problem  of,  381- 
384 ;  essay  on,  384,  387-39?  i 
Luther  on,  398-401 

Freiburg  in  Breisgau,  residence 
at,  441-456  . 

Froben,  John,  first  acquaintance 
with  Erasmus,  232  ;  character, 
233-235 

Froben,  John  Erasmius,  421 


Gaguinus,  41 

Gerard,  father  of  Erasmus,  4 


Gerhardt  of  Nymwegen,  428 
Goclenius,  Conrad,  letters  to,  4, 

267,458 
Gouda,  life  at,  5, 
Grey,  Thomas,  43 
Grimani,  Cardinal,  151  ;  receives 

Erasmus,  154-156;    letter  to, 

224 
Grocyn,  William,  64,  81 
Groot,  Gerard,  8 
Grunnius,  Lambertus,  letter  to, 

xiv,  4,  II,  19,  21,   130;  reply 

of,  132 

H 

Hedio,  Caspar,  letter  to,  379 
Hegius,  Alexander,  6 
Hermann,  William,  23,  47 
's  Hertogenbosch  (Bois-le-Duc), 

school  at,  8 
Hoogstraaten,   Jacob,   letter  to, 

326-329 
Hutten,    Ulrich   von,    361-363; 

controversy      with     Erasmus, 

363-378 ;     letter    from,    364 ; 

the     Expostulatio,    366  -  372  ; 

Erasmus'  Spongia,  372-378 


"  Index,"  papal,  454,  455 

Indulgences,  Luther's  Theses  on, 
289-291  ;  Erasmus  on,  292, 
293 

Inghirami,  Tommaso,  149 

Ingolstadt,  call  to,  247 

Institution  of  Christian  Mar- 
riage,  433-435 

Institutio  Principis  Christiani, 
255-262  ;  its  teaching,  286 

Italy,  life  in,  125  sqq. 

IX^vo<payia  colloquy  of  Eras- 
mus, 35-40 


Jerome,  St.,  edition  of,  68,  205 
Joanna  of  Spain,  119 


468 


Index 


K 

A  Kempis,  Thomas,  8 


Lascaris,  Johannes,  143 ;  letter 
to,  265 

a  Lasco,  John,  letter  to,  417,  418 

Laurinus,  Marcus,  letters  to, 
254.  347-361 

Lee,  Edward,  427 

Leo  X.,  dedication  of  New  Tes- 
tament to,  271  ;  letter  to,  302 

Linacre,  Thomas,  64,  81,  199 

Louvain,  life  at,  61,  264 

Ludwig  the  Bavarian,  empefor, 
276 

Luther,  Martin,  called  to  Witten- 
berg, 280 ;  his  early  develop- 
ment, 280-283 ;   Theses,  289- 
291  ;  letter  from,    294 ;  letter 
to,    295-297  ;    his   views  dis- 
claimed,      298  sqq. ;       Leipzig 
Disputation,   307,   337  ;  burns 
the  papal  bull  and  canon  law 
337  ;    writings   of    1520,   338 
confronts   the    radical    party 
339-341  ;  at  Worms,  345,  346 
letter  on    free  will,  384-386 
treatise,  de  servo  arbitrio,  398— 
401 

Luther  and  Erasmus  compared, 
282,  283 

M 

Macchiavelli,  Niccolo,  //  Prin- 
cipe, 256 
Manius,  Peter,  letter  to,  I 
Marburg  Conference,  408 
Margaret,    mother   of  Erasmus, 

4 

Margaret  of  Austria,  regent  of 
the  Netherlands,  405 

Maximilian  of  Germany,  119 

Melanchthon,  Philip,  called  to 
Wittenberg,  280  ;  letter  to,  325 

More,  Thomas,  64  ;  first  meeting 
with  Erasmus,  77,  78  ;  intro- 
duces Erasmus  to  the  royal 
children,  79  ;  Utopia,  257 


Mountjoy,  Lord,  pupil   of  Eras- 
mus, 43 ;  invites  him  to  Eng- 
land,   62 ;    second     invitation 
(1509),  179-183 
Mlinzer,  Thomas,  340,  362,  398 
Musurus,  Marcus,  143,  144 

N 

Neuenaar,  Count  of,  244 
New  Testament,  Greek,  editing 
begun  in   England,   200-204  ; 
dedicated    to   Pope   Leo    X., 
271 ;  third  edition,  351 


O 


OpuUntia   sordida,  colloquy   on 

life  at  Venice,  138-142 
Orleans,  life  at,  92 


Pace,  Richard,  at  Ferrara,  145 

Padua,  life  at,  144 

Paraphrases  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, 424-426 

Paris,  university  organisation, 
34  ;  life  in,  33-40,  42-47,  248- 
253 

Parvus,  William  (Guillaume 
Petit),  248,  249 

Paul  1 1 L,  pope,  correspondence 
with,  457 

Paul   IV.,  pope,  Index  of,  454, 

455 
Pelicanus,    Conrad,    letters    to, 

416,  417 
Philip   of   Burgundy,  panegyric 

on,  116-121 
Pirkheimer,    Bilibaldus,     letters 

to,  413,  414 
Pius  IV.,  pope.  Index  of,  455 
Poncher,     Stephen,     Bishop    of 

Paris,  250,  253 
Popes,  humanistic,  273 
PrcFparatio     ad   Mortem,     452, 

453 
Praise  of  Folly,  motive  of,  158  ; 
analysis  of,  159-175  ;  apology 
to  Dorpius,  176-178 


Index 


469 


R 


Raphael,  Cardinal  of  St.  George, 

226 
Religious  Pilgrimage,  the,  215, 

216 
Reuchlin,    John,   236-239,    310, 

320 
Rhenanus,  see  Beatus 
Riario,  Raffaelle,  cardinal,  151 
Rome,  life  in,  150-156 


Scaliger,  Julius  Caesar,  criticises 
Erasmus,  137,  235 

"  Senex  ille"  42-46 

vSchmalkalden,  League  of,  445 

Servatius,  companion  of  Eras- 
mus at  Steyn,  23 :  prior  of 
Steyn,  letter  from  Erasmus, 
218-224 

Siena,  visit  to,  146 

Sintheim,  John,  6 

Sorbonne,  the,  attacks  the  Col- 
loquies, 424,  and  the  Para- 
phrases, 432 

"  Spirit,"  the,  388,  389  ;  Luther 
on,  399 

Spongia  adversus  aspergines 
Hutteni,  372-378 

Standonch,  John,  35 

Steyn,  monastery  at,  14-20;  life 
at,  15-23 

Stromer,  Heinrich,  letter  to 
Spalatin,  459 

Stunica,  James  Lopez,  355,  404, 
427 


The  True  Way  of  Prayer,  437- 

440 
Tournehens,  visit  to,  54 
Tunstall,  Cuthbert,  263,  264 

U 

Utopia   of   Thomas  More,  257, 

261 
Utrecht,  life  at,  5 


Valla,  Laurentius,  204 

V  "re,    Anna,    Marchioness  of, 

48  ;  visit  of  Erasmus  to,  54  ; 

letter  to,  59,  60 ;  marriage  of, 

61 
Venice,  life  at,  137-143 
Volzius,  letter  to,  111-115 

W 

Warham,  William,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  joins  in  calling 
Erasmus  to  England,  183 ; 
gives  him  the  "living"  of 
Aldington,  184-186;  charac- 
ter, 226,  454 

Wessel,  John,  8 

Winckel,  Peter,  uncle  and  guard- 
ian of  Erasmus,  5,  7,  9 

Wittenberg  University  founded, 
280 

Wittenherus,  Nicholas,  prior  of 
Steyn,  222 

Wolsey,  Thomas,  letter  to,  298 

Worms,  Diet  at,  345,  346  ;  Edict 
of,  346 


95 


29     It 


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TTBDAnxr 


1^ 


UCLA-ED/PSYCH  Library 

LB  175  E6E5 


EC  L  005  594  994  5 

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LB 

175 
E6E5 


UC  SOUTHERN  HEGK3NW.  UBRARY  FAOUTy 


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A    000  962  536    9 


